MODESTY AND IMMODESTY. - M. (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 and the interior acts presupposed by them. Opposed to it is the vice of immodesty, which is the voluntary lack of moderation in the acts just indicated. Not infrequently this word denotes unchastity.

Four species of m. are distinguished, two for internal acts and two for external acts and goods, to which multiple forms of i. are opposed: a) Humility, which leads one to evaluate and love human lowliness according to reason and faith and to moderate the craving for superiority. b) Desire for knowledge (studiositas), a virtue that on the one hand reasonably stimulates the search for truth (and in that respect is rather a part of fortitude), and on the other restrains the desire to know what is above or beyond the subject's capacity. c) M. in bearing or in customs, which induces one to perform common acts decently and honestly

MODESTY AND IMMODESTY - M. Marble sculpture by G. Sammartino (18th century) - Naples. National Museum.

(decentia, if it regulates these acts according to the requirements of the agent; bona ordinatio, if according to the requirements of other persons, of time, place, etc.), and play (eutrapelia). It is m. in the most obvious and common sense, made sacred by the fact that the human body is a member of Christ and human members are a temple of the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 5, 15 and 19; cf. Eccl. 19, 26). It therefore demands respect for one's own body and that of others and urbanity in every act, and forbids all impropriety, such as soft and effeminate behavior, rigidity and affectation in standing, leaning, moving, eating; as for the eyes (cf. Mt. 6, 22-23), it requires not only that guilty or dangerous glances be avoided, but in general that they be kept composed and that the curiosity to see be mortified; as for hearing and speech, that nothing harmful or useless be listened to or said (cf. I Cor. 15, 33; Iac. 1, 26). d) M. in adornment (m. ornatus, cultus, apparatus exterioris), which moderates the use of clothing, furnishings, dwelling, banquets and the like, according to the requirements of persons, times, places and customs.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: s. Bernardo, Tractatus de gradibus humilitatis et superbiae: PL 182, 941-72; Summ. Theol., 2ᵃ-2ᵃᵇ, q. 120, s. 2, ad 3; q. 143; q. 160; q. 168, s. 1; s. Francesco di Sales, Introduzione alla vita divota, parte 3ᵃ, S. Pier d'Arena 1912, pp. 160-349; P. Lumberras, De fortitudine et temperantia, Roma 1939, nn. 159 e 307-63; Vl. Iankélévitch, Traité des vertus, Parigi 1949, pp. 298-356.

Giuseppe Pistoni

@incollection{ec8_modestia_ed_immodestia, author = {Pistoni, Giuseppe}, title = {Modestia ed Immodestia}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {1197--1198}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/modestia-ed-immodestia} }

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Modesty and Immodesty

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