LUCIFERO. - The Latin name (*lucifer*) of the planet Venus or the "morning star," which in the Vulgate translates the Hebrew *hêlêl* ("shining," Is. 14:12) or *maz-zârôth* (Job 38:32) or *bôger* ("morning," Job 11:17) or *sâhar* ("dawn," Ps. 109:3), corresponding to *Ἑωσφόρος* in the Septuagint; it is also used metaphorically in 2 Pt. 1:19 (φωσφόρος). Through Is. 14:12 (Vulgate), *L.* became a synonym for Satan.
Already the Egyptians had recognized the identity of the solitary star that appears at sunset (Uâiti) and the god (Tiumutiri) who greets the sun at its rising. "The lowest of the five wandering stars nearest to the earth is the star Venus, which the Greeks call *φωσφόρος*, and the Latins *lucifer* when it precedes the sun, but *hesperus* when it follows it" (Cicero, *De nat. deorum*, II, 20; cf. Pliny, *Hist. nat.*, II, 8-6 [36]).
In his oracle against Babylon, Isaiah (14:12) addresses the mighty and proud king, enemy of God, now dead (cast down into *šě'ôl*): "How you have fallen from heaven, O shining one, son of the dawn! (Heb. *hêlêl ben-šâhar*; the Vulgate follows the Septuagint: *Ἑωσφόρος ἔσῃ ὁ καταβαίνων εἰς τὸν ᾅδην*)"; among the Greco-Romans, the mythical Lucifer was also the son of Aurora. Aquila, the Peshitta, and probably the Masoretic vocalizers interpret *hêlêl* not as a form of *hâlal* ("to shine") but as a hiph'il of *jâlal* ("to wail"); St. Jerome concurs (*Comm. in Is.*, V, 14: PL 24, 161): "In Hebrew... it is read: 'Wail, son of the dawn'; but it is also expressed in other words as *lucifer*; and it is said of him who must almost lament and mourn, who once was so glorious as to be compared to the brightness of the morning star," and he makes *L.* the highest fallen angel, who must bewail the loss of his original splendor. After the Jews, the Fathers (Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, Cyril of Alexandria, etc.) saw the devil (q.v.) in this *L.*, inasmuch as it denotes the glorious state from which he has fallen (D. Petavius, *De angelis*, III, 3, 4).
The fall of *L.* expressed in Is. 14:12 seems to be alluded to in Lk. 10:18 and Rev. 9:1-11 (*L.* sinking into the abyss is Abaddon [q.v.]). Some (G. Estius, A. Calmet, etc.) see in Phil. 2:6-11 a contrast with the titanic ascent attempted by *L.* (Is. 14:14); thus St. Bernard (*PL* 183, 36; cf. 184, 793 ff.; 184, 684) opposes the "Magnificat" of Mary to the canticle of *L.*
The morning star symbolizes the moral splendor of the high priest Simon son of Onias (Sir. 50:6: ἀστὴρ ἐκδυνάζων, "Vulg. *stella matutina*"; but the Hebrew has "luminous star"). In the New Testament it denotes Jesus as "the morning star that rises in the hearts" with the faith that prepares for the parousia (2 Pt. 1:19); Jesus is "the radiant morning star" (Rev. 22:16: ὁ ἀστὴρ ὁ πρωϊνός ὁ λάμψας) and will give to the victor "the morning star" (τὸ ἀστὴρ τῶν πρωϊνῶν: Rev. 2:28), i.e., his glory. The Latin liturgy, in the *Exultet*, invokes Christ as "Lucifer matutinus... Lucifer who knows no setting."
In Latin patristic usage, the term acquired a pejorative sense following its application to Satan in Is. 14:12, where the trajectory from the highest pinnacle to the deepest abyss is described (Dante, *Inf.*, 31, 143; 34, 89; *Purg.* 12, 25 = Lk. 10:18). Already *Lucifer* (or *Lucifera* for a woman) was a fairly common name and cognomen in Roman circles (J. Perin, *Onomasticon*, II, Padua 1940, p. 141). According to one tradition, the morning star was the first creation of God (cf. Ps. 100:3 Vulg., and Rev. 22:16b; 8; Augustine, *Serm.*, 119, 14 and 174, 1).