PATRIA and PATRIOTISM. — Patria comes from pater, “father”: it is the land in which one was born and in which one’s ancestors have lived in familial continuity. Its outward elements are land, fatherhood, and nationality; its inward elements are national consciousness and traditions. It is not an arbitrary creation of the mind; rather, it springs immediately from the social nature of human beings and evolves freely under the impulse of providential influences. The concept of patria must be distinguished from those of society, nation, and State. The notion of patria adds to that of society the element of continuity, which the term society does not itself imply. This enduring unity corresponds to that of the nation; but whereas patria designates more especially the land, nation more properly designates the community of people whom birth unites as descendants of the same ancestors, while State, on the other hand, designates rather the people politically organized: it is the political and juridical notion of the patria.
According to the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas (Sum. Theol., 2a-2ae, q. 101, a. 1), the patria is that in which one was born and nourished and toward which one is therefore bound by a complex of duties. The same St. Thomas links his doctrine on this point with what Cicero had already taught, namely that love for the patria is included in pietas (v. PIETY), in those same duties that man owes to God and to his relatives. This pietas is expressed through officium, that is, through reverence, and through cultus, that is, through reverence and honor, so that it is not exhausted in mere external obedience but consists in the inner submission of the spirit, as one must do toward God and toward relatives. As for the scope of these duties, St. Thomas considers more directly the persons than the State in the abstract: “by the cultus of the patria is meant the cultus toward all fellow citizens and toward all friends of the patria.” And rightly so, because the State can change and even be fought when it does not correspond to its task, its territorial extension may sometimes vary, whereas it remains substantially the same with regard to the individuals who make up the State itself.
By the term patriotism is meant that fervent and disinterested sentiment which impels citizens of every class to promote the greatness, glory, and well-being of the patria in a manner consonant with justice and charity.