PROCULA, CLAUDIA. — Name attributed to the wife of Pilate by an ancient tradition. Easily of the gens Procula, belonging, according to Tacitus, to the equestrian order and descended from a collateral branch of the Claudii, who had lived in Gaul and rendered services there. Claudia Procula is in fact given as a native of Narbonne.
In the Gospel there is a reference to her in Mt. 27:19; she begs her husband not to interfere in the trial of Jesus, having suffered greatly in a dream because of him.
A tradition, dating back at least to the time of Origen, says that she was a proselyte to Judaism. The Greeks classify her not among the secret followers of Jesus and venerate her as a saint (Oct. 27).
BIBL.: M.-J. Ollivier, Ponce Pilate et les Pontii, in Revue biblique, 5 (1806), pp. 594-96. Fedele Pasquero