About
Cadaver Synod site and stone memorial that predicts the pope's death.
This former papal palace houses an unusual monument- Pope Sylvester II’s cenotaph (a funeral moment for a person whose remains are entombed elsewhere) that is said to sweat profusely when the death of a pope is near. If it’s clammy or damp, the death of a cardinal or bishop is imminent. Interestingly, Pope Sylvester II has long been associated with the supernatural. His contemporaries (likely amazed by and maybe jealous of his intellect) said he was a sorcerer who built an automaton which acted like an oracle. The automaton told him that if he ever went to Jerusalem he would be taken by the devil. Taking the warning literally, he avoided the Holy Land but was struck dead when he said mass at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, an alternate version of the legend says his bones rattle when a pope is about to die.
