Spy Wednesday is the traditional name marking the Wednesday of Holy Week, leading up to Easter Sunday. It is called “spy” because it was on this day in the Gospels that the Apostle Judas Iscariot was paid 30 silver pieces by the Jewish Sanhedrin to “spy on” and betray Christ. 

This incident is recorded in Matthew 26:14-16: “One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, ‘What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?’ They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.”

The origin of the name Spy Wednesday is unknown, although some believe that Holy Wednesday may have begun to be commemorated under this title in the medieval period when the word “spy” entered the French and English vernacular.