Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Luciferus I., bishhop of Calaris
Luciferus I., bp. of Calaris (Cagliari) ] in
Sardinia, mentioned first in a letter of pope
Liberius to Eusebius of Vercelli. Moved by
great anxiety about the efforts then being
made (a.d. 354)
to procure a condemnation of
Athanasius by the Western bishops, Lucifer
had come from Sardinia to Rome, and Liberius
accepted his offer to go as an envoy to
Constantius to ask him to summon a council
The council met at Milan in 354. The Arian
party, supported by the emperor, was strong
in it, and a proposal to condemn Athanasius
was immediately brought forward, but resisted
by Lucifer with such vehemence that
the first day's meeting broke up in, confusion
and his opponents prevailed on the emperor
to confine him in the palace. On the fourth
day he was released. The subsequent
discussions of the council were held in the palace
and Constantius himself apparently took part
in them. The proceedings were irregular and
disorderly, and after some personal
altercations the emperor sent Lucifer into exile
His banishment lasted from 355 to 361, and
was mostly spent at Eleutheropolis in Palestine,
subject to the persecutions of the Arian
bp. Eutychius. During his banishment, and
probably at Eleutheropolis, his books or
pamphlets on the controversy were written.
Lucifer addresses Constantius in them with
a remarkable vigour of denunciation. He
evidently courted persecution, and even martyrdom.
He compares the emperor to the
worst kings that ever reigned, and regards him
as more impious than Judas Iscariot. He
sent his vehement invective by a special
messenger to Constantius himself. Astonished
at this audacity, the emperor ordered
Florentius, an officer of his court, to send the
book back to Lucifer to ask if it were really
his. The intrepid bishop replied that it was
and sent it back again. Constantius must be
allowed to have shewn magnanimity in leaving
these violent effusions unpunished. There
may, however, have been some additional
hardship in the removal of Lucifer from Palestine
to the Thebaid, where he remained till the
death of Constantius in 361. Hearing of his
arrival in Egypt, Athanasius sent a letter from
Alexandria, full of praise and congratulations,
asking him to let him see a copy of his work
After receiving it, Athanasius thanked him in a
still more laudatory letter, and calls him the
Elias of the age.
Very soon after his accession, a.d. 361, Julian permitted the exiled bishops to return to their sees. Lucifer and Eusebius of Vercelli were both in the Thebaid, and Eusebius pressed his friend to come with him to Alexandria, where a council was to be held under the presidency of Athanasius, to attempt to heal a schism at Antioch. Lucifer preferred to go straight to Antioch, sending two deacons to act for him at the council. Taking a hasty part in the affairs of the much-divided church at Antioch, where the Catholic party was divided into two sections, the followers of Meletius and the followers of Eustathius, Lucifer ordained Paulinus, the leader of the latter section, as bp. of the church. When Eusebius arrived at Antioch, bringing the synodal letter of the council and prepared to settle matters so as to give a triumph to neither party, he was distressed to find himself thus anticipated by the action of Lucifer. Unwilling to come into open collision with his friend, he retired immediately; Lucifer stayed, and declared that he would not hold communion with Eusebius or any who adopted the moderate policy of the Alexandrian council, which had determined that those bishops who had merely consented to Arianism under pressure should remain undisturbed.
After remaining some time at Antioch, Lucifer returned to Sardinia, and continued, it would seem, to occupy his see. Jerome (Chron.) states that he died in 371. To what extent he was an actual schismatic remains obscure. St. Ambrose remarks that "he had separated himself from our communion" (de Excessu Satyri, 1127, 47); and St. Augustine, "that he fell into the darkness of schism, having lost the light of charity" (Ep. 185, note 47). But there is no mention of any separation except Lucifer's own repulsion of so many ecclesiastics; and Jerome, in his dialogue against the Luciferians (§ 20), calls him beatus and bonus pastor. (See a quotation from the Mém. de Trevoux in Ceillier, vol. iv. p. 247.)
The substance of Lucifer's controversial pamphlets consists of appeals to Holy Scripture, and they contain a very large number of quotations from both Testaments. His writings are in Migne's Patr. Lat. t. xiii. His followers, if they ever formed a distinct organization, disappeared in a few years. Jerome's dialogue adv. Luciferianos purports to be the report of a discussion between an orthodox Christian and a Luciferian. The dialogue was written c. 378, seven years after the death of Lucifer. Five or six years later an appeal was made to the emperor by the Luciferian presbyters.
[J.LL.D.]