MANSUETUDE. - The virtue that moderates anger, restraining it within the bounds of reason, to avoid the blinding impetus of passion. Anger, which in itself can be just or unjust, finds in mansuetude (a potential part of temperance) that golden mean which prevents its irrational excess and directs it toward those objects against which it is reasonable to be aroused.
St. Thomas links mansuetude, as a supernatural evangelical beatitude, with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, highlighting the perfection achieved in the supernatural order of the natural virtue: "There is a virtue that restrains the outburst of the passions of the irascible appetite, so that man does not abandon himself to them beyond what is reasonable; the gift (of the Holy Spirit) acts more perfectly so that man is rendered tranquil by those passions according to the divine will; hence the beatitude: 'Blessed are the meek.' From this supernatural ascetical perspective, mansuetude is a gift of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) and more closely assimilates the Christian to Jesus 'meek of heart' (Mt. 11:29)."