The Holy Spirit’s Gift of Fortitude

and

Mar 09, 2025

Fortitude is the fourth Gift of the Holy Spirit. Commonly associated with courage, Fortitude is a firmness in the will and intellect to do good and shun evil, particularly in times of great danger and struggle. In this gift, the Holy Spirit gives us the confidence and boldness to speak the truth and do the good no matter what obstacle the world throws in our way. With this gift we do not fear the rejection of men because we fix our sights on doing right in the eyes of God. The Holy Spirit gives us in this gift the ability to take a stand for truth and love when the occasion demands it. This is a crucial gift for these days, when we must have the courage to stand up and shout God’s truth to a relativistic society and do our part to shine forth the light of Gospel of Jesus Christ on the vicious and growing campaign of cancel culture.

Obviously, for St. Thomas, the gift of Fortitude is linked to the virtue of Fortitude. The virtue of Fortitude is exactly like the gift, except the gift, given by the Holy Spirit goes above and beyond and perfects our Fortitude. The virtue of Fortitude, a cardinal human virtue, is a power of the soul which we are naturally built to acquire. We must make good choices but are capable of building it up ourselves. On the other hand, as St. Thomas points out, the gift of Fortitude is a grace handed down to us by God. Without Him we are incapable of having the fortitude necessary to face down lions like the first Christians did, or even stand up for the truths of our faith without being shouted down. One saint who showed this Gift of Fortitude was St. Adrian of Nicomedia. St. Adrian was a pagan Roman soldier during the early persecutions. Impressed by the courage of the Christians sent to death for their faith, he boldly declared himself a Christian in front of the whole imperial court. He was imprisoned and tortured but never went back on his faith in the one true God, who had imbued him with the same gift of Fortitude as the Christians who went before and after him.

The Beatitude blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness is linked to Fortitude, according to St. Augustine. Those with Fortitude courageously seek to always be turning from earthly things to the heavenly truths and absolute goods for which we were created. He says they will be satisfied like laborers after a hard day of working, in this case working tirelessly and courageously for salvation. St. Joan of Arc is one person who typifies this type of boundless courage and labor. Called from her humble life as a peasant girl as a young teenager, she was given the task by God to save France. He did not leave her to accomplish this on her own, but strengthened her with many gifts. Among them was Fortitude, St. Joan was not afraid to speak her mind to anyone when it came to matters of faith, even the king of France. She was eventually captured and put on trial for heresy. Before a biased court, she never wavered in speaking the truth, declaring before the princes and prelates her love for God in simple but affective language. Asked if she knew if she was in the grace of God she replied, “If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me. I should be the saddest creature in the world if I knew I were not in His grace.” She was eventually sentenced to death and burned at the stake. She took all this with the normal courage gifted her by God, asking only that a cross be held before her at her execution, so that it was the last thing she would see in her mortal life.

The Lived Classics

Discussion about this post