Fortitude is a Much Needed Virtue

The Cardinal Virtues – justice, temperance, prudence, and fortitude – are sometimes known as the pagan virtues.  This is because before Christianity, the Greek and Roman civilizations saw them as the foundation of all other virtues, great and small.

I have written in the past about prudence. This month I would like to examine the virtue of fortitude.

Various dictionary definitions describe fortitude in various ways.  Essentially it is the ability to endure such things as danger, pain, adversity, temptations, or any kind of difficulty or calamity with courage and a kind of equanimity.

I grew up, in the contact sport ethos of the West Texas/Eastern New Mexico oil fields.   The fortitude archetype there was the football player who said “Yeah, I broke my leg in the first quarter, but Coach had me walk it off.  I feel fine now.” (The example is ridiculously extreme, but it captures the spirit of the region at the time I was growing up only too well.)

An Especially Stoic Virtue

Unsurprisingly, fortitude is often associated with stoicism. Stoicism is the philosophy of Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Cato the Younger, and many others.  It holds that people should focus on things that are in their control and rise above things which are not. The Stoic prizes reason over emotion, but recognizes emotion as part of the reality of human experience and existence.

For the Stoic reason constrains emotions.  Much of the surviving stoic writings focus on the self-discipline and education necessary to accomplish this.

Fortitude is clearly the sort of virtue that stoicism would prize. One can easily imagine a Stoic appreciating the apocryphal West Texas football player’s comment about “walking it off.”

But is this kind of virtue we would consider Christian?

Christian Fortitude

Fortitude might seem somewhat too self-reliant when viewed through the lens of Stoicism.  Considering fortitude a Christian virtue may even seem too self-sufficient, and even prideful.  This may be especially true in these times which prize gentle, non-confrontational reconciliation in interpersonal relations.

But many have prosecuted the Faith through the centuries.  The saints, especially the martyrs during such times, clearly understood the value of fortitude.

The Sanhedrin had St. Stephen, the first martyr, killed after he publicly witnessed to Jesus.  The Acts of the Apostles (Chapter 7) spends more time on his witnessing than his actual martyrdom.  His stoning does not seem to have been a long, drawn out affair.  Even so, Stephen exhibited considerable fortitude in withstanding both the inquisition of the Sanhedrin and the stoning.  While he was being stoned, he even cried out “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” and, moments after that, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

Later martyrs often suffered more mistreatment, brutality, and anxiety in anticipation of execution than did Stephen.  That anxiety was probably often severe, because the ancient world was not concerned about executions being inhumane. The inhumanity was actually kind of the point.  Executioners applied horrifying amounts of imagination and ingenuity to making executions as painful and horrible as possible.

Modes of Martyrdom

According to Wikipedia, Pope Gregory I discerned three classes of martyrdom which he designated as red, blue and white.  Red martyrs suffered torture and/or a violent death. Blue (sometimes called green) martyrs denied themselves by fasting and penitential acts.  White martyrs were those who followed a strict asceticism, frequently accompanied by withdrawal from society.

Some also say there are “wet martyrs,” and “dry martyrs.”  Execution, or otherwise shedding blood, is the mark of a “wet martyr.”  A “dry martyr” is one whose torment did not involve bloodshed or death.

Whatever class or category, it is clear that martyrdom requires a plentiful supply of fortitude.

Fortitude Is Not Just The Province Of Martyrs

The truth is, fortitude is necessary for any virtuous life, not just the spectacular lives of Saints and Martyrs.

The married couple who holds to their vows despite temptations, the passage of years and the wear and tear of accumulated frustrations and disappointments are displaying fortitude in considerable measure.

Parents working long hours also display fortitude by providing for their children. Many parents deny themselves caring for special needs children or when paying for a good education for their children.  This too is fortitude.  In short, parents who do whatever it takes to ensure that their own children grow up in a secure, stable environment are shining examples of fortitude.

Fortitude empowers a student who overcomes a lack of natural aptitude in a given subject by diligent, focused, hard work and effort.

Fortitude keeps us going when fatigue, disillusionment, abandonment, even disapproval would have us lay down and quit.

Fortitude is the why and the how and the force behind the old saying “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”.

”Keep On Keeping On”

Attributed to Len Chandler and quoted by Martin Luther King, the phrase “Keep on keeping on” is as succinct and complete a definition of fortitude as one might find.

It was this kind of fortitude, nourished by the Holy Spirit that powered the Apostles.  They came out of hiding and preached the Gospel of Jesus against all the resistance and threats arrayed against them.

It was this kind of fortitude that kept the Faith intact during the heavy persecutions, and later through years of popular heresies, and movements of apostasy.

And it is this kind of fortitude that protects the faith even now in places where martyrdom is still a real and present danger.

In some ways, perhaps even more so, this fortitude protects against the apathy and familiarity and secularism that work against devotion with a slow, inexorable pressure on us to conform to the world and be done with the sacrifices and disciplines of Christian life.

Let us find our own fortitude, that we may keep on keeping on in the footsteps of our mothers and fathers in the faith.