Letter from Pontius Pilate's Wife

Book excerpt: This is rewritten from an old traditional manuscript first found in a monastery at Bruges, where it had lain for centuries. When Madame de Maintenon become consort of Louis XIV of France she had this letter read every Good Friday before the court assembled at Versailles. In some of the older communities of Europe its reading follows the washing of the feet of the poor on Good Friday, in remembrance of Christ's washing the feet of His disciples. A copy of the original letter was also found among the private papers of the late Czarina of Russia, and was given by her in trust to a friend to keep until the Czarina expected to return from the fateful last journey to Tsarskoe Selo.