Sediari Sediari The Sediari pontifici () were chair-bearers of the pope on the sedia gestatoria. Originally servants of the papal household they later became a lay confraternity. The origins of the chair-bearers lie in medieval times, earlier even than the Swiss Guards. The earlier red-dressed papal grooms or palafrenieri were a different group of papal servants, originally liverymen for the papal carriage, then an influential Confraternity, then finally merged with the sediari. The sediari and parafrenieri constituted a Confraternity from 1378. Pius IV allowed them in 1565 to erect the chiesa di Sant'Anna dei Palafrenieri, designed by Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola.
Ekaterina Sedia Ekaterina Sedia Ekaterina Sedia (born July 9, 1970) is a Russian fantasy writer. She immigrated to the United States and attended college in New Jersey to obtain her Ph.D. She is best known as a fantasy author. Her most famous work is "The Alchemy of Stone", a steampunk novel that examines sexism and class bigotry. Sedia's other novels include "The Secret History of Moscow", "According to Crow", and "The House of Discarded Dreams". She has also written several short fiction stories, poems, and nonfiction books. Several of her publications have been nominated for awards and/or have made a well-known reading