Fortitude
Fortitude
Definition
Dictionary
Strength of mind that enables a person to encounter danger or bear pain or adversity with courage. 1
New Advent Encyclopedia
“Fortitude is the virtue of the man who, being confronted with a noble occasion of encountering the danger of death, meets it fearlessly.” It includes endurance in the face of adversity according to Aquinas. 2
Catechism of the Catholic Church
CCC 1808
“Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life. The virtue of fortitude enables one to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions. It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just cause. ‘The Lord is my strength and my song.’ ‘In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.’”
This virtue goes beyond physical bravery but represents spiritual courage “rooted in faith that empowers the believer to stand firm for truth, justice, and charity, even at the cost of personal loss,” even life. 3
Victory over Vice
“Fortitude may be defined as that virtue, which enables us to face undismayed and fearlessly the difficulties, and dangers which stand in the way of duty and goodness.”
Patience and Fortitude are closely related, like the sides of a coin. Fortitude is active engagement towards danger and difficulties; patience is “passive acceptance of what is hard to bear.” 4
Magisterium AI
Fortitude is the virtue that assures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good, reaching even to the ability to sacrifice one’s life for a just cause.3
More concretely, fortitude:
- strengthens you to endure evil without despair and to keep doing what reason and conscience require, even when it is hard.5
- is “not so much with audacia as with timor” and “not so much with attack as with endurance”: it focuses on sustaining yourself under terrifying or difficult circumstances.2
- can include, when necessary, the courage to face dangers for an honorable good.6
In the Christian life, fortitude is also linked to the ability to “go beyond” fear by trusting in God for witness to truth and justice, sometimes even through persecution.7
Other Sources
Ideas
Combining Anger from HFSoF and Fortitude from VoV, anger provides the energy to fuel the fortitude; fortitude would be the appropriate use of that fuel, either to correct an evil or to patiently endure what is beyond one’s control.