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 time because of the delay of the thing desired. To endure a nuisance for a short time belongs to the virtue of patience; to tolerate a nuisance that comes from the delay of the thing awaited belongs to longanimity.
According to St. Thomas (Sum. Theol., 2ᵃ-2ᵇᶜ, q. 126, a. 5) such patience is rather an act of magnanimity, inasmuch as it tends toward a distant good, overcoming the difficulty of the waiting. In Sacred Scripture the term is used to signify the great patience of the Lord in bearing offenses, of which one must not take advantage, as St. Paul suggests (Rom. 2:4), admonishing the sinner not to despise the riches of the patience and longanimity of God. As defects contrary to longanimity one must note the same as those of patience, namely, by defect, insensibility, whereby one feels no sorrow when it would be right to feel it; by excess, impatience, which drives one to complain, to become restless and to murmur because of the waiting and the delay.
Bibliography2 worksR. Giraud, Dizionario universale delle scienze ecclesiastiche, VI, Naples 1847, p. 297; Th. Iorio, Theologia moralis, I, 3rd ed., ibid. 1946
BIBL.: R. Giraud, Dizionario universale delle scienze ecclesiastiche, VI, Naples 1847, p. 297; Th. Iorio, Theologia moralis, I, 3rd ed., ibid. 1946, p. 214, n. 304.
Sirna, Giuseppe. “Longanimità.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VII, col. 1511. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951. https://azioneromana.com/article/longanimita.
MLA
Sirna, Giuseppe. “Longanimità.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VII, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951, col. 1511. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/longanimita.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec7_longanimita,
author = {Sirna, Giuseppe},
title = {Longanimità},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {VII},
pages = {1511},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1951},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/longanimita}
}
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