HEROIC ACT. - Every human act is called heroic which a person cannot perform except with extraordinary or very great moral difficulty. It is not always possible to determine with absolute certainty when heroism is present, since objective and subjective circumstances of various kinds, sometimes imponderable, combine to constitute the heroic act. Even the exercise of virtue, however ordinary and easy of observance when taken in its individual manifestations, can constitute true heroism if prolonged throughout one's whole life or for a very long period and observed with particular perfection. Ordinarily this heroism suffices for the beatification (v.) and canonization (v.) of the servants of God. This heroism, however, which may be called habitual, is different from that required to perform a single action or a series of few actions, for which there is required in the subject a contempt for life itself or for one of the greatest goods of the person, e.g. liberty.
Theologians and moralists intend to speak of the heroic act in this second sense when they treat of the object of law, and ask themselves whether it is possible to impose on the mass of subjects, or on some of them, heroic acts of this nature. Following the direction of the Church, the answer is negative when the law concerns the subjects in mass: the law cannot impose a heroic act. An exception to this norm is made by the divine-natural laws, not only because God is the absolute master of each one's life, but also because in reality, in imposing them, God always gives the natural and supernatural means necessary for their observance. For this reason everyone must rather suffer death than deny the faith. But apart from the divine-natural laws, not even the divine-positive laws make an exception, inasmuch as, for the cases in which true heroism is necessary for them to be observed, it is legitimately presumed that God suspends their obligation. Thus, for example, no one will be obliged to sanctify the feast day by hearing Mass or abstaining from work, if, in order to go to church, one runs a serious danger of being killed by the enemy, or if by not working one would lack the necessary sustenance to continue living.
Purely human laws, on the other hand, whether civil or ecclesiastical, can never impose a heroic act in a general way; they can do so in particular cases, only on condition that this be absolutely required by the common good, or that the same persons have spontaneously placed themselves in social situations such that they require heroic actions. For the first reason the sentinel must perform his duty, even at the cost of his own life, since this is required by the common good; for the second, clerics in sacred orders and religious must observe perfect chastity; parish priests and pastors of souls must generally remain at their post, even at the peril of their lives; religious vowed to the service of the plague-stricken or of lepers must serve them even at the proximate danger of deadly contagion.
In consequence of the principles set forth, normally laws do not impose heroic acts. Nevertheless, the moralists observe that if they did so, save for the exceptions mentioned above, they would have no effect. The reason for this lies in the fact that among the conditions required by a law for it to be valid is that its observance be practically possible. Nor is it difficult to demonstrate that a law which imposes on its subjects in a general way truly heroic acts would be practically unobservable or at least intolerable: it would therefore cease to be directed to the common good as useless, and hence would cease to be a law.
It is necessary, however, to bear in mind that the judgment concerning the heroic character of an action is as a rule reserved to the legislator. Very rarely can the case arise that subjects exempt themselves from obeying, adducing the reason that the action imposed is heroic. This holds also for cases of precepts given directly to individual persons.
For the heroic act of charity in suffrage of the souls in Purgatory, v. ATTO EROICO DI CARITÀ.
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Lorenzo Simcone