Claudia Procula, Pontius Pilate’s wife
Forgotten Women of History Series
Claudia Procula, Wife of Pontius Pilate
Most of us know Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who condemned Jesus to death. But how many of us know the woman who tried to stop him?
Claudia Procula (sometimes called Procula or Procla) appears only once in the New Testament, yet her brief act of conscience made her one of the most intriguing women in early Christian history: a woman caught between empire, superstition, and moral conviction.
Who Was Claudia Procula?
Claudia Procula appears in the Gospel of Matthew (27:19):
“While Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, saying, ‘Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.’”
That is all we’re told. One sentence, one plea, and silence.
Yet that silence speaks volumes.
From that moment onward, Claudia Procula becomes a figure of fascination: a Roman noblewoman whose prophetic dream warned her husband against condemning Jesus. In an age when women’s words carried little authority, she dared to intervene in a trial that would shape Western history.
What She Did, or May Have Done
The Gospels leave her unnamed motives unexplained. Was she haunted by a divine vision? Troubled by guilt? Influenced by early Christian sympathies?
Later traditions filled in the gaps. Greek and Coptic sources refer to her as Saint Procla, a convert to Christianity who suffered persecution for her faith. In contrast, Roman and medieval writers often dismissed her as a dreamer, or worse, a superstitious meddler.
Some legends claim she abandoned Pilate after his downfall, following the apostles and eventually dying a martyr. Whether or not any of this is true, Claudia Procula embodies a remarkable archetype: the woman who speaks truth to power, yet cannot alter its course.
She represents the conscience within empire, a voice ignored in the machinery of politics; and perhaps a mirror for every woman whose warning goes unheeded.
Claudia Procula in Fiction: Claudia, Wife of Pontius Pilate by Diana Wallis Taylor
Claudia, Wife of Pontius Pilate by Diana Wallis Taylor
In her richly imagined novel Claudia, Wife of Pontius Pilate, author Diana Wallis Taylor breathes life into this shadowed figure. The story follows Claudia from her youth in imperial Rome to her uneasy marriage with Pilate, exploring the loneliness, ambition, and spiritual yearning of a woman bound to power she cannot control.
Taylor’s Claudia is intelligent and devout, torn between loyalty to Rome and compassion for the new faith stirring in Judea. Her prophetic dreams and moral insight form the novel’s heart, transforming a fleeting biblical mention into a portrait of courage and conviction.
Why She Matters Today
Claudia Procula reminds us that history often records men’s actions but overlooks the women who questioned them. She wasn’t a ruler or a warrior, but a woman who tried, in a single act, to prevent an injustice.
In a world that still struggles to listen to women’s warnings, her story feels strikingly modern.
She is not merely “Pilate’s wife.” She is the woman who, in the cruel politics of the Roman Empire, dared to dream of mercy.
Next Wednesday on Forgotten Women of History: another woman whose name is barely remembered but whose courage shaped her world.