LONGANIMITY. - From the Latin longanimitas, it is one of the potential parts of the cardinal virtue of fortitude and signifies patience prolonged over a long period because of the delay of the desired thing. To endure an annoyance for a short time belongs to the virtue of patience; to tolerate an annoyance arising from the delay of the thing awaited belongs to longanimity.
According to St Thomas (Sons. Theol., 2ᵃ-2ᵇᶜ, q. 126, a. 5), such patience is rather an act of magnanimity, insofar as it tends toward a distant good, overcoming the difficulty of waiting. In Sacred Scripture the term is used to signify the Lord’s great patience in enduring offences, which must not be abused, as St Paul suggests (Rom. 2, 4), warning the sinner not to despise the riches of God’s patience and longanimity. Among the defects contrary to longanimity, the same ones as those opposed to patience should be noted: by defect, insensibility, whereby one feels no sorrow when it would be right to feel it; by excess, impatience, which leads one to complain, become disturbed, and murmur because of waiting and delay.