Letters (of Lucifer and others)

Epistulae

1Lucifer and the papal legates Pancratius and Hilarius urge Eusebius of Vercelli to come quickly and join them against the Arians.
2Liberius praises the exiled bishops for their confession, wishes he had suffered first, and asks for their prayers and a full report.
3The master of offices Florentius asks Lucifer whether a book presented to the emperor in his name is really his.
4Lucifer acknowledges that the book presented to the emperor is his, sends it back, and declares himself ready to die for what he wrote.
5Athanasius praises Lucifer's confession, laments the Arian persecution, and asks for a copy of what Lucifer wrote to Constantius.
6Athanasius, in hiding from the Arian persecution, thanks Lucifer for his books, praising them as the work of the Holy Spirit and calling him the Elijah of the age.
7Liberius defends himself to Constantius over Athanasius, insists on the Nicene faith, and sends Lucifer and two legates to ask for a council.
8Athanasius tells the monks to shun not only Arians but also those who claim orthodoxy yet pray with Arians.

About this work

Author: Lucifer of Cagliari
Attribution: authentic · Hartel prints with Lucifer's own letter (1) the letters of Liberius (2, 7), Florentius (3), Athanasius (5, 6, 8) and Lucifer to Florentius (4) that were preserved with his writings. The letters of others are published here as part of this collection.
Standing: Honoured by the Catholic tradition. Honoured as a saint in the Roman Martyrology and in Sardinia (Catholic); his later followers, the Luciferians, formed a schism, but he himself died in the church's communion.
Date: ca. 356–361 (approximate) · Written in exile in Palestine and the Thebaid under Constantius II (d. 361).
Written at: Eleutheropolis, Palestine (approximate)
Language: Latin
Genre: letter
Reference system: letter number as in Hartel (1–8); letters 2–8 are by others
SBL abbreviation: Ep.Not yet checked
Clavis: CPL 117 (not yet checked)
Text from: Wilhelm von Hartel, ed., Luciferi Calaritani opuscula, CSEL 14 (Vienna: Gerold, 1886) (Printed edition (Hartel, 1886) in the public domain; digital text CC BY-SA 4.0)