PERSEVERANCE. — The virtue that disposes a person to continue in the good, according to the dictates of reason, despite the prolongation of vexations and difficulties (Sum. Theol., 2a-2ac, q. 128, a. 1). Being able to withstand one or a few difficulties is easy for many; struggling for a long time until they are overcome constitutes a particular virtue. In this respect, p. sometimes refers solely to the disposition of the will; at other times, to its actual execution. It may also concern either individual good objects or the whole of life.
The more prolonged the suffering caused by difficulties, the more worthy of praise is p. Sacred Scripture exhorts us to p., joining it to patience as a condition for attaining the reward (cf. Eccli. 5, 12; Mt. 10, 22; 24, 13; Lc. 21, 19; Hebr. 3, 6; 10, 36; Iac. 5, 11; Apoc. 2, 10), and condemns anyone who, having begun a good work, draws back (Lc. 9, 62). But as a supernatural virtue, which disposes the soul to continue in the good deserving of divine reward, it requires Grace, at least habitual Grace (Sum Theol., 2a-2ac, q. 137, a. 4).
OPPOSED VICES. — Perseverance is opposed: by defect, by softness; by excess, by pertinacity. The former produces an excessive fear of difficulties, causing one to withdraw from good resolutions because of the tedium and difficulties involved; the latter drives an initially good resolution beyond reasonableness, without withdrawing in the face of evidence of the contrary truth or of the manifest uselessness of the undertaking, out of mere obstinacy: “To continue in the good is virtue; to persist in what is false or unreasonable is vice” (loc. cit., q. 138, aa. 1–2).
BIRL.: A. Tanquercy, Compendio di teologia ascetica e mistica, Rome 1928, nn. 1088–98; E. Janvier, La virtù della fortezza, Turin–Rome 1938, pp. 121–40; A. Rossi, Sii forte. Dottrina e pratica della fortezza cristiana, Milan 1940, passim; G. Blanc, Constance, in DThC, III, cols. 1197–1200; A. Michel, Persévérance, in DThC, XII, cols. 1256–1304. Sisinio da Romallo