Mrs Pilate: Claudia Procula and Clare Boothe Luce

Abstract

“While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, ‘Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him.’ From this single sentence in the Gospels, a rich tradition has grown up about Pontius Pilate’s spouse, later called Claudia Procula. Her story found expression in the small-screen dramas of the mid-century. From this same period comes the most intriguing portrait of Claudia, though it was a production that never in fact made it from the page to the screen. From March of 1951 through the spring of the following year, the multi-talented Clare Boothe Luce worked diligently on a concept for RKO Pictures to be entitled Pilate’s Wife, which told the story of the Passion from the perspective of the prefect’s new spouse, Claudia. As the eighteen-year-old niece of the emperor Tiberius, Claudia develops over the course of the story from a spoiled young aristocrat interested in nothing but her own amusement into a figure of deeper spiritual depth. In the early 1960’s, Pilate’s wife was also featured on a best-selling recording called Claudia’s Letter, read with musical accompaniment by actress Marjorie Lord.