How many virtues are there?

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irishcolleen45

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I’m listening to Fr Chad Ripperger, an exorcist, who said there are 64 virtues. Does anyone know what they are? He didn’t enumerate them.
 
The number of virtues is equivalent to the number of angels dancing on a pin.

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St Thomas Aquinas apparently enumerated them. I don’t know the chapter/verse. Sorry.

Crucially, St Thomas Aquinas…“connected” the human virtues with the supernatural virtues. (see near the bottom of this post).

The human virtues are those habits or firm dispositions (to do the good) we can develop as humans, without believing in God, being Baptized.

The 4 main ones are: Prudence, Justice, Temperance, Fortitude. The “64” you note are all “derivative” of these main 4 virtues, also called the Cardinal virtues.

Prudence…as the CCC says is the “charioteer” of the other virtues…applying just the right amount of each of the other 3 Cardinal virtues for a given situation.

One example of a “smaller” or child virtue to the cardinal virtue of temperance is: the spirit of poverty (or the virtue known as detachment)…being able to throttle back our inclination to covet things or possess things…created goods, items that whet our appetites or passions.

Another interesting example of one of these lesser/smaller virtues is the virtue of Cheerfulness.

Cheerfulness is actually a sub virtue to the cardinal virtue of JUSTICE. We owe someone our cheerfulness. This might strike someone as wrong headed, but it’s not. In order for someone to live well and more pleasantly they are “owed” our cheerfulness. Providing our cheerfulness helps them pursue the good as it were…so we owe them our cheerfulness.

Some people recently…and they may be right say that in the case of our spouse or children…cheerfulness is a matter of justice…but in the case of others…our cheerfulness is really part of the virtue of Charity.

I love this last example.

Aquinas connected up the human virtues to the supernatural (aka Theological) virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity.

These virtues are considered “infused” virtues…God infuses in us these virtues…we don’t “generate” our own faith, hope or love.

We get more of these virtues not by practicing them, but by asking God confidently for more of them in prayer.
 
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There is no set number! Virtues are just traits that predictably connect to good action. Don’t go around expecting an authoritative list.
 
Not sure I’d agree with all of them (ambition?) but thank you.
 
Paul mentions ambition in negative context.

Patience is a virtue that I learned about later in life. I wish I would have learned about it sooner.
 
I’m trying to become more patient but it’s a daily struggle for me.
 
Hi, there! I actually signed up to the forum just to answer this question.

Fr. Ripperger, over the past year or two, put a PDF on his website that contains his list of traditional virtues. Unfortunately, since I am a new member, I cannot post links. But please go to his website at SenTrad dot org, and then navigate to the “Texts Online” tab toward the far right of the top, just below the banner. When there, do a CTRL+F search for “virtues;” the first result will be a link to that PDF document.

Also, if you browse through that “Texts Online” portion of his website, you can find not only this list of virtues, but many other useful documents, including various prayers against the demonic that Father mentions in some of his conferences.

Hope that helps! I know these files have been very useful to me in the past.
 
The list Colleen is looking for describes ambition as a vice. It involves “striving for honor above one’s excellence.” On the other hand, there’s also the vice of pusillanimity, or smallness of soul, which involves not striving for any sort of (spiritual) excellence at all. Both of these are vices against fortitude.
 
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Sorry for yet another post, but I just realized something.

If you simply Google “Fr. Ripperger List of Virtues,” his PDF should be one of the first results you come across. The title of the link in the Google results is “moral virtues - Sensus Traditionis.”
 
Yes. Like a trial.

It’s wise to defer to prayer when going through that trial. Maybe write
your own prayer for patience or just pray some Hail Holy Queens.
 
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I pray to the BVM daily asking for patience. But as mentioned it’s an ongoing process which is something I tend to forget.

Thank you.
 
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