Saint Lucifer

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Lucifer or Lucifer Calaritanus (d. 370 or 371) was a bishop of Cagliari in Sardinia and Christian saint known for his passionate opposition to Arianism.

At the Council of Milan in 354 he defended Athanasius of Alexandria, and he opposed the Arians so powerfully that they had the Emperor Constantius II (an Arian sympathizer) confine Lucifer for three days in the palace. While in confinement, Saint Lucifer argued so strongly with the emperor that he was banished, first to Palestine and then to Thebes, Egypt. While in exile, he wrote fiery letters to the emperor that put him in danger of martyrdom.

After the death of Constantius and the accession of Julian the Apostate, Lucifer was released in 362. However, he would not be reconciled to former Arians. He consecrated bishop Paulinus, without license, creating the schism of Meletius of Antioch. He may have been excommunicated, as is hinted in the writings of Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome, who refers to his followers as Luciferians, a sect that survived in scattered remnants into the early 5th century. Jerome, in his polemic Altercatio Luciferiani et orthodoxi ("Altercation of the Luciferian and the orthodox"), offers almost all that is known of Lucifer or the sect. Lucifer of Cagliari's chief writings, against Arianism and reconciliation with heresy, include De non conveniendo cum haereticis, De regibus apostaticis, and De S. Athanasio.

His feast day in the Catholic Church is May 20. His name demonstrates that "Lucifer" (meaning "light-bringer") was not yet merely a synonym of "Satan" in the 4th century. However, hasty references by enthusiastic 19th century biblical scholars assumed from the name that the Luciferians were Satanists. Therefore, although his cultus has not been suppressed nor his canonization reevaluated, he is not often celebrated or spoken of in the calendar.

[edit] References

• Cross, F. L. ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. New York: Oxford UP, 1978.
• Englebert, Omer. The Lives of the Saints. Christopher and Anne Fremantle, trans. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1994. Nihil obstat, Imprimatur 1951.