Saints Pontius Pilate & Claudia Procula

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I don’t think I’d be comfortable venerating him, but I also don’t understand the hatred of him.

First reason being, without Christ being crucified, there is no salvation. Everyone involved had a part to play. Even Judas, though a traitor, had to do what he did.

Second, Pilate wasn’t a Jew. He had no context of understanding the role of the Messiah and he had an obligation to maintain the peace in his province.

Third, the high priest and his followers were the ones that really pushed for Jesus to be executed. When the crowd of Jews was given the opportunity to free him or Barabas and they chose Barabas instead of a peaceful man. (again, not a condemnation of the Jews, it had to happen.)
 
There was one Catholic classic written by a 17th c. abbess. (Blessed.) It points out that the devil entered Judas’ heart to turn Jesus over and to start the events that would lead up to the Passion. Partway through the events, the demons realize that they’ve made a terrible mistake-- because they realized that if events were allowed to proceed, that it would result in the salvation of mankind. So they tried to put the brakes on it… but while Judas and the high priests were happy to cooperate with their inspirations towards evil, they weren’t interested in cooperating with their inspirations to stop evil. Because even though they were trying to inspire people to do the right thing, because God wasn’t behind their attempts towards good, their attempts towards good failed. Similar things happened with Pilate’s wife-- they sent her disturbing dreams to help her try and stop Jesus’ execution by influencing her husband. But again, it failed-- because even though Pilate knew he was doing wrong, he was too weak to do right, and deal with the consequences of doing right.

Anyhow, it was an interesting perspective, and stuck with me.
 
JanSobieskiIII said:
Barabas
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Interesting note, Barabbas’ full name was Jesus Barabbas. Barabbas means “son of the father.”

The crowd chose to release the criminal Jesus, son of the father, and to condemn the True Son of the Father, Jesus.

This ties in very well with Mosaic teaching on scapegoats in Leviticus and the Redemption and Atonement of Christ - we are the scapegoats, and Jesus is our Lamb.
 
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If anything he might be appropriate as the Patron of people who are between a rock and a hard place. 😑
His dear wife told him not to get involved, but as a person on the outs with Caesar, he had to do SOMETHING, and was very uncomfortable with it. He unwittingly hastened our salvation.
But he was not enthusiastic about his assignment to that particular group of people. He may not have been a great guy, but he wasn’t a fiend either.
 
JanSobieskiIII said:
Second, Pilate wasn’t a Jew. He had no context of understanding the role of the Messiah and he had an obligation to maintain the peace in his province.
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Yeah, I’ve always felt sorry for him because to him it was just another day ending in Y with a bunch of crazy Jewish people upset about some dumb thing that meant nothing to him as a Roman, and threatening to riot if he didn’t do something about it, even though he realized the guy they were mad at hadn’t committed an actual crime under Roman law.

I’m willing to bet he lost a good bit of sleep over that situation. I’d like to think he had a chance at salvation. it seems like he did make a half - a*d attempt to save Jesus.
 
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Exactly. I view him in the same light I do any other pre-Christian/pagan ruler.
 
Spyridon said:
Apparently St. Augustine considered Pilate a convert, and possibly a Saint.
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The Ethiopian Orthodox specifically believe that Pilate converted and was baptized, and was martyred for this.

They also have what they believe to be the Ark of the Covenant in their possession, and a priest is assigned to attend it for the rest of his life.

hawk
 
after his recall from palestine, pilate retired to spain with his wife who had already converted to christianity; and she influenced her husband in this regard

pilate met st james in spain & thereby was fully converted to the christian faith
 
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As far as strictly historical knowledge goes, the last thing we know about Pontius Pilate is that Vitellius relieved him of his duties in Judea in 36 and ordered him to return to Rome, following the Samaritans’ complaints about his mishandling of the Mount Gerizim incident. In Josephus’ words (Ant. 18.89), “Vitellius thereupon despatched Marcellus, one of his friends, to take charge of the administration of Judaea, and ordered Pilate to return to Rome to give the emperor his account of the matters with which he was charged by the Samaritans. And so Pilate, after having spent ten years in Judaea, hurried to Rome in obedience to the orders of Vitellius, since he could not refuse. But before he reached Rome Tiberius had already passed away.”

Pilate’s sudden disappearance from the history books at that point has proved an irresistible temptation to fiction writers of all kinds and in every period.
 
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Eusebius of Caesarea’s Ecclesiastical History says that Pilate killed himself on orders from the Emperor Caligula in about 39 AD.
 
Tulitas said:
Eusebius of Caesarea’s Ecclesiastical History says that Pilate killed himself on orders from the Emperor Caligula in about 39 AD.
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Here is the whole of Chapter 7 of Book 2 of Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History:

It is worthy of note that Pilate himself, who was governor in the time of our Saviour, is reported to have fallen into such misfortunes under Caius, whose times we are recording, that he was forced to become his own murderer and executioner; and thus divine vengeance, as it seems, was not long in overtaking him. This is stated by those Greek historians who have recorded the Olympiads, together with the respective events which have taken place in each period.

Eusebius doesn’t name the “Greek historians” who are his sources, and this whole business about Pilate and Caligula is universally regarded as one of the early instances of writers of fiction falling into temptation, as I mentioned in my earlier comment.
 
Considering that 30 years after Jesus’s crucifixtion Rome starved and slaughtered Jerusalem, I’d say Pilate was pretty reasonable.
 
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