LUCIFERO of CAGLIARI. — Bishop of Cagliari, died, according to St. Jerome (De viris ill., 95), around 370–71. Nothing is known of his life and education until 354, when he already appears as bishop of Cagliari and came to Rome, offering himself to Pope Liberius to go as ambassador to the emperor Constantius II to negotiate on the Arian question. The Pope accepted, and the outcome of the mission was the convocation at Milan of the Council of 355, at which almost all the bishops, pressed by threats and violence, signed the condemnation of St. Athanasius; only L., Eusebius of Vercelli, and Dionysius of Milan were able to resist. They were therefore arrested and driven into exile. Germanicia in Syria was assigned to L. as his place of residence; he was then transferred to Eleutheropolis in Palestine and later to the Thebaid.
In 361, by the edict of Julian the Apostate, he was able to regain his freedom; but instead of returning to his see, he remained for some time in the East, especially at Antioch, which was ravaged by doctrinal and disciplinary struggles between the followers of Bishop Meletius and those faithful to the memory of Bishop Eustathius. L. worsened the situation; by ordaining Paulinus, head of the Eustathians, he refused to accept the decisions of the Council of Alexandria (362), inspired by a desire for peace, and maintained his intransigence toward the Arians and even toward the converted semi-Arians, after his return to Cagliari as well. The final years of L.’s life are obscure, and it is difficult to say whether he died within the Church or not. In Sardinia he is honored as a saint, and his feast is still celebrated today in the dioceses of Cagliari and Oristano with the Mass of the Commune Doctorum.
During his exile, between 356 and 361, L. composed a series of polemical pamphlets against the emperor Constantius, namely: Pro s. Athanasio or Quia absentem nemo debet iudicare nec damnare; De regibus apostaticis; De non parcendo in Deum delinquentibus; Moriendum esse pro Dei Filio; De non conveniendo cum haereticis. They are not rich in doctrinal content, and they also leave much to be desired in their very neglected language and style; scriptural citations abound, making them laborious to read; classical culture is likewise scant. They are nevertheless very important, both because they reveal the author’s indomitable character and, above all, for the knowledge they provide of the biblical text before the Vulgate prepared by St. Jerome. It seems that St. Athanasius praised them and translated them into Greek. L. also wrote several letters, but those known today are not all authentic or genuine.
L.’s rigorist ideas, concerning those who had stained themselves with the errors of the Arians, were embraced by a number of bishops and ecclesiastics, to such an extent that after his death there is talk of a sect of Luciferianists. It possessed a doctrinal body and was also very widespread. The principal sources for its study are St. Jerome’s pamphlet, Altercatio Luciferiani et Orthodoxi (PL 23, 163–92), for its doctrinal aspect, and the so-called Libellus precum (CSEL, XXXV, pp. 3–44), for the spread of the sect in the various regions. According to the Altercatio, the Luciferianists maintained that, when Arians were readmitted to the Church, if they were bishops they had to renounce every dignity and be content with the simple lay state. St. Augustine further reports (De haeres., 81) that he had read in an anonymous pamphlet that the Luciferianists also believed that the soul is generated together with the body by the parents. This report, however, is not certain. From the Libellus, written by the Luciferian presbyters Faustinus and Marcellinus and addressed to the emperors Valentinian II, Theodosius, and Arcadius, in order to implore protection against the hostility of the Catholics, it is known that, besides Sardinia, Luciferianists were present in Spain, where the most prominent representatives were Gregory, bishop of Elvira, and a presbyter named Vincent; at Trier, where the presbyter Bonosus was located; at Oxyrhynchus, led by the bishop Heraclidas; and at Eleutheropolis in Palestine, with the abbess Hermione and her entire monastery. A community of Luciferianists also existed at Rome, presided over by a certain Bishop Aurelius, who was succeeded by Ephesius; the two authors of the Libellus belonged to II. After L.’s death, his followers continued to be heard of for approximately twenty years; they disappeared between the end of the fourth century and the beginning of the fifth.