Why did the early Christians honor Pilate as a saint?

Calling Pedro Pilate a saint sounds inconsistencies in the ears of modern Christians. How could this Roman governor, who ordered Jesus to be whipped and handed over to him to be crucified, be considered a saint? However, this is exactly what some early Christians thought of him—a Christian convert who ended up martyred for his faith.

From the writings of the Jewish historians Josephus and Alexander Philo, we know the historical Bentius Pilate, the governor of Judea from 26 BC to 36 BC. Their portraits of this Roman official show that he completely despised the feelings of his Jewish subjects. According to Josephus, once Pilate tried to smuggle portraits of the emperor into Jerusalem, which provoked an outcry from the Jews, who considered the portraits to be idolatry. Pilate threatened the protesters with death, but when he saw the Jews preparing to be martyred, he gave in and removed the images. Philo reported that Pilate's government was a long list of "bribes, insults, robberies, atrocities, wanton injustices, repeated executions without trial, and endless cruelty." His brutal regime eventually put him in trouble. Pilate was removed from office and summoned back to Rome to face charges of excessive cruelty. He was exiled to Vienna, France.

But the Gospels paint a different picture of Pilate. Here we see a cowardly, wavering prefect unwilling to condemn an alleged demagogue. Pilate did not disobey the Jewish mob; on the contrary, he was intimidated by it. Jesus swung back and forth between Pilate and Herod like a hot potato. Finally, the Gospels are conflicted over who is responsible for Jesus' death. Although Pilate literally washed his hands, Jesus was still crucified—a roman rather than a Jewish way of execution.

Early Christians began to build legends around Pilate's apparent reluctance to condemn Jesus. Beginning in the second century, we hear some apocryphal stories about how Pilate acknowledged not only Jesus' innocence, but also his divinity. Terturian wrote that Pilate converted to Christianity and even tried to persuade Emperor Tiberius to convert to the faith.

Eusebius, a fourth-century ecclesiastical historian, said that while Tiberius was still a pagan, pilate's testimony impressed him, and he urged the Roman Senate to add Jesus to the official Pantheon. Any attack by Tiberius on Christians was punishable by death. However, his successor Caligula was not equally affected and ordered Pilate to commit suicide. The Bishop of Lyon, Iriniu, said that the Capocrates possessed a statue of Jesus painted by Pilate himself. There is even a document called the Biography of Pilate, which implies that Pilate was God's instrument for Jesus' death. This 5th-century fabrication also makes it clear that Pilate expressed genuine sympathy for the grief-stricken Jews who did not want Jesus to be crucified. St. Augustine listed Pilate as a prophet in one of his sermons. Early Christian artists likened him to the old Testament heroes Daniel and Abraham. Pilate's refusal to condemn Jesus is parallel to Daniel's refusal to condemn Suzanne. Abraham's leadership of Isaac as a sacrifice is reflected in Pilate's leading of Christ to his atonement for his sinful death.

Historians argue that the Gospels downplayed Pilate's role in Jesus' trial in order to make the Romans accept the new religion. With the conversion of many Romans, Constantine eventually accepted Christianity, and Pilate became a model for the Romans who refused to persecute Christians. He proved that the Romans played an important role in the plan of salvation.

No one knows what happened after Pilate was fired. An old tradition says he committed suicide. Eusebius records that Pilate committed suicide out of remorse for his role in Jesus' execution. But the Ethiopian church considers the former governor martyred, has canonized him as a saint, and declared June 25 his feast.