Detail of the Altar of the Chapel of São Lucifer with the inscription that indicates where their relics are
The controversial bishop of Cagliari, whose uncompromising defense of Catholic orthodoxy generated a conflict with the church, established a semi-schismatic sect in Sardinia-where it is still venerated today as saint.
In 1623, workers who excavated near the St. Saturnino Basilica in Cagliari, Sardinia, made a surprising discovery: a tomb with a tombstone that claimed to contain the remains of Someone named Lucifer.
This was not the devil From the biblical narrative, but of a controversial Catholic bishop whose zealous defense of orthodoxy led him to conflict with the church and to establish his own sect: Luciferians.
The excavation was directed By Francisco de Esquivela Spanish cleric born in 1550 that had risen in the ecclesiastical ranks to become Bishop of Cagliari in 1605.
In the sardine, dusk reformed the local clergyestablished the university and the island seminar, and was involved in an intense competition with the archbishop of Sassari to discover relics of Santos, says the.
Two years after the start of the excavations, Bishop Esquivel discovered a tombstone with the inscription “Here Jaz Lucifer, of good memoryArchbishop of Cagliari, Primate of Sardinia and Corsga, very beloved son of the Holy Roman Church, who lived 81 years, the 20th of the May Calendar. ”
Esquivel put the relics – probably false – in the sanctuary of the martyrs in the Cagliari Cathedral, and the Esquivel Bishop himself was buried at the entrance of this crypt, after his death in 1624, never fulfilled his desire to return to Spain.
Little is known about Lucifer’s initial lifealthough historians estimate that they were born around 290 AD
First appears in the historical records in 354 as Bispo de Cagliarisent by Pope Liberius to Emperor Constancio II to request a council in defense of the Athanasius of Alexandria against the CONDEMNATION BY THE ARIAN BISPES.
A Aryan controversy He focused on the question of Jesus having human and divine natures: Arius stated that Jesus was created by God and, therefore, was not divinea condemned position in the Council of Niceia, in 325, while Athanasius defended the doctrine of consubstantialitystating that Jesus is of the same substance as the Father.
Despite the Lucife ProtestsR, the Arles Council in 353 ratified the conviction of Athanasius. A subsequent council in Milan in 355 upheld this decision, leading to the exile of Lucifer and other dissidents who refused to sign the decree.
Lucifer was first sent to Germanicia Caesarea, current Kahramanmaraş, in Türkiye, then to Palestine and, Finally, for Thebes, on Egypt. During your exile, wrote burning defenses of your position And he declared himself willing to face martyrdom for his beliefs. The exiles were authorized to return after the death of Emperor Constantius II in 362.
When Athanasium called a council in Alexandria in the same year, showing the willingness to reconcile with regretful Aryans, Lucifer refused to participate.
Instead, traveled to Antiochwhere he surpassed his authority by ordering a new bishop, further fracturing the church. When his old friend Eusébio de Vercelli tried to mediate the conflict, Lucifer’s stubbornness ended his friendship.
When returning to Cagliari, Lucifer rejected the decision of the Council of Alexandria to restore bishopados from ancient Aryans. Around 370 AD, it established a sect SEMI-CYSMATIC known as the Luciferians.
Although Never been accused of violating the Catholic dogmaLucifer’s adamant refusal to accept regretful Arianos back to the church earned him criticism of prominent church priests, including the saints Jerónimo, Augustine and Ambrose.
The Luciferians They spread beyond the sardineparticularly for Hispania (present -day Spain), although they remained a small movement and relatively insignificant. They continued to petition successive emperors, insisting that those who advocated reconciliation with the Aryans had betrayed Catholicism.
O LUCIFER STATUS AS SANTO remains controversial. Never formally canonized, A tradition of veneration was developed in the sardine Lucifer, creating discomfort within the church. Some freckled bishops defended their holiness while others opposed.
The Cagliari Church established May 20 as your festive daybut the subsequent controversy led Pope Urban VIII in 1621 to order silence on the matter, pending an official decision.
Lucifer de Cagliari remains a paradoxical figure in the history of the Church-a zealous defender of Catholic Orthodoxy whose uncompromising posture eventually put him in disagreement with the institution herself sought to protect.
