Saint claudia procula biography

“While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, “Have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him.”

-Matthew 27:19

Saint Matthew is the only Evangelist to mention Pilate’s wife.

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.

She started inventing tales about medieval women living in castles when she was just six years old—and never stopped.

Beginning in the late fourth, or early fifth century, she is known as Claudia Procula.

Pontius Pilate would not free Christ, because he was afraid of the Jews, After her husband’s death, Claudia Procula is said to have embraced Christianity. She is not identified by name, but the author of the apocryphal Acts of Paul says that she received Baptism from the Apostle of the Gentiles.

Influenced by early Christian sympathies?

Later traditions filled in the gaps. 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.

She is not identified by name, but the author of the apocryphal Acts of Paul says that she received Baptism from the Apostle of the Gentiles.

Rachel came to novel writing later in life, but she has always been passionate about history, storytelling, and the forgotten voices of women. But when she discovered the extraordinary story of Nicola de la Haye, the first female sheriff, who defended Lincoln Castle from a French invasion and became known as ‘the woman who saved England’, Rachel knew she had found a heroine worth telling the world about.

Was she haunted by a divine vision? 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

In her richly imagined novel Claudia, Wife of Pontius Pilate, author Diana Wallis Taylor breathes life into this shadowed figure.

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.

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. Troubled by guilt? 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.

Rachel Elwiss Joyce, Author of Historical Fiction.

Exploring power, loyalty, and love in turbulent medieval England.

She writes meticulously researched, immersive historical fiction that brings overlooked heroines into the light. In the apocryphal Gospel of Νikόdēmos she is called Procla, or Procula. Beginning in the late fourth, or early fifth century, she is known as Claudia Procula.

Pontius Pilate would not free Christ, because he was afraid of the Jews, After her husband’s death, Claudia Procula is said to have embraced Christianity.

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. 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.