Flabellum a fan, later of an umbrella or canopy, was used as a mark of honour for bishops and princes. Prior to Vatican II, two fans of this kind were used at the Vatican whenever the pope was carried in state on the sedia gestatoria to or from an altar or audience-chamber. Through the influence of Count Ditalmo di Brozza, the fans formerly used at the Vatican were presented in 1902 to a Mrs. Joseph Drexel of Philadelphia, USA, by Pope Leo XIII; in return, she gave a new pair to the Vatican. The old ones are currently exhibited in the
Ekaterina Sedia currently teaches plant ecology and botany at Stockton College and lives with her husband Christopher Sedia and their cats. In her spare time, she blogs about fashion, food, cats, books, television, and feminism. Ekaterina Sedia attended Moscow State University. She then moved to Boston and worked at MIT’s department of brain and cognitive sciences as a research assistant. After that she moved to New Jersey and went to graduate school at Rutgers University-Camden, which is where she got her degree in ecology and evolution in 2001. Today she works at Stockton University teaching plant ecology and evolution. In this story