MODESTY and IMMODESTY. - Modesty (from the Latin *modestia*) is a moral virtue, annexed to temperance, which moderates (whence its name) or regulates human acts that present moderate difficulty: acts, gestures, and external goods of the body, as well as interior acts presupposed by these. Opposed to it is the vice of immodesty, which is the voluntary lack of moderation in the acts just mentioned. Not infrequently, this word is used to indicate shamelessness.
Four species of modesty are distinguished, two concerning internal acts and two concerning external acts and goods, to which correspond various forms of immodesty:
a) Humility, which leads one to evaluate and love, according to reason and faith, human frailty and to moderate the desire for superiority.
b) Desire for knowledge (*studiositas*), a virtue which, on the one hand, reasonably stimulates the search for truth (and in this case is rather a part of fortitude), and on the other, restrains the desire to know what is above or beyond the capacity of the subject.
c) Modesty in bearing or manners, which induces one to perform decently and honestly the common acts (decentia, if it regulates these acts according to the needs of the agent; *bona ordinatio*, if according to the needs of other persons, of time, place, etc.), and play (*eutrapelia*). This is modesty in the most obvious and common sense, rendered sacred by the fact that the human body is a member of Christ and human limbs are a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 5:15 and 19; cf. Sir 19:26). It therefore demands respect for one’s own and others’ bodies and decorum in every act, forbidding all disorderliness, such as soft and effeminate behavior, stiffness and affectation in standing, sitting, moving, and eating; with regard to the eyes (cf. Mt 6:22-23), it requires not only that culpable or dangerous glances be avoided, but in general that they be kept composed and that curiosity to see be mortified; with regard to hearing and speech, that nothing be listened to or said that is harmful or useless (cf. 1 Cor 15:33; Jas 1:26).
d) Modesty in ornamentation (*modestia ornatus, cultus, apparatus exterioris*), which moderates the use of clothing, furnishings, dwellings, banquets, and the like, according to the needs of persons, times, places, and customs.
(photo by Alinari)