that the woman could have been the wife of Pontius Pilate, though she notes that there is no evidence that Pilate was ever in Beirut and the name Claudia Procula is attested elsewhere. She concludes: "If this date [last three quarters of the first century] is accepted, the possibility that this was in fact Pilate's wife, though unlikely, cannot be entirely excluded." Later Christian tradition Attitudes toward Pilate and his wife varied by region. In general, Pilate was revered in the Eastern churches, and despised in the Western churches. Pilate's wife, as Saint Procla, is venerated by the Oriental Orthodox Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church as well as the Eastern Catholic Church. The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates Procla on October 27, while the Oriental Orthodox Church celebrates both her and her husband as saints on June 25. The earliest references to Procla's conversion to Christianity date from the second-century Christian apologist Origen. In the Western Church, Pilate's wife was never canonized and her dream was often interpreted as coming from the devil, who wished to prevent salvation. This interpretation can be found in figures such as medieval theologians Rabanus Maurus, Bede, and Bernard of Clairvaux, as well as Protestant reformer Martin Luther. Other Western Christians, such as Saint Augustine, Saint Jerome, and Protestant reformer John Calvin, argued for a divine origin of the dream, but without holding Pilate's wife to be a saint. New Testament Apocrypha The most important text to feature Procla is the Gospel of Nicodemus, also called The Acts of Pilate, which expands on her mention in Matthew 27:19. In the Gospel of Nicodemus, Pilate's wife sends a messenger to Pilate rather than telling him of her dream herself, and the Jews accuse Jesus of using sorcery to send the dream. Pilate describes Procula, when speaking to the Jews, as pious and as practicing the Jewish religion. In some versions of the text, both Pilate and Procula are depicted as present at the crucifixion, and so saddened by Jesus's death that they cannot eat or drink. The Paradosis Pilati (5th c.), a Greek text which is sometimes attached to the Gospel of Nicodemus, has extremely high regard for Pilate and Procula, writing them as martyrs. In it, Tiberius orders the beheading of Pilate for the crime of executing Jesus. Pilate indicates that Procula already serves the Christian God; in a divine vision, Pilate is reassured that