Papal coronation him, approaching one by one and kissing his hand. Then the archbishops and bishops approached and kissed his feet. Following this, at least from the beginning of the 16th century, the newly elected pope was carried in state through St. Peter's Basilica on the "sedia gestatoria", under a white canopy, with the papal flabella (ceremonial fans) to either side. Instead of the papal tiara, he wore a jewelled mitre (the episcopal "mitra pretiosa"). Three times, the procession was stopped, and a bundle of flax lashed to a gilded staff was burnt before the newly elected pontiff, while a master of
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