Age Viriliter! The Motto of the CCR

Age viriliter! It is a cry that speaks deeply to the human soul. Act manfully. Be strong, be certain, be true. Do what is good and right, no matter what difficulty stands in your way. It is the first part of the fundamental statement, the motto, of the Confraternity of Christ the King.

Age viriliter is a cry that speaks deeply to the human soul. Act manfully. Be strong, be certain, be true.

Where does it come from? From the Scriptures, of course; but let us first note what we are not referring to. Too often, conservative reaction to modern emasculation involves a veritable caricature of masculinity, which focuses on lifting weights; muscular physiques; fighting skills; the consumption of red meat; and sexual promiscuity. None of these, of course, are what the CCR means by viriliter, nor is this concept of masculinity compatible with Christianity in general. (Aspects of it may be, of course; but the equation of masculinity with physicality simply is not.) So let us examine what viriliter means in the Scriptures, and see where that may lead us.

The paradigmatic place for the expression is from St. Paul:

Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, do manfully, and be strengthened. 1Cor 16:13

However, we can also find it in many other places throughout the Scriptures:

• Expect the Lord, do manfully, and let thy heart take courage, and wait thou for the Lord. (Ps 26)
• Do ye manfully, and let your heart be strengthened, all ye that hope in the Lord. (Ps 30)
• Be of good courage and let us behave ourselves manfully for our people, and for the cities of our God: and the Lord will do that which is good in his sight. (1Par 19:13)
• For then thou shalt be able to prosper, if thou keep the commandments, and judgments, which the Lord commanded Moses to teach Israel: take courage and act manfully, fear not, nor be dismayed. (1Par 22:13)
• You therefore, my sons, take courage, and behave manfully in the law: for by it you shall be glorious. (1Mcc 2:64)
• He that shall gainsay thy mouth, and not obey all thy words, that thou shalt command him, let him die: only take thou courage, and do manfully. (Jos 1:18)
• And they went through Idumea, and approached to Bethsura, and fought many days, and they made engines: but they sallied forth and burnt them with fire, and fought manfully. (1Mcc 6:31)
• But when the fifth day appeared, twenty young men of them that were with Machabeus, inflamed in their minds because of the blasphemy, approached manfully to the wall, and pushing forward with fierce courage got up upon it. (2Mcc10:35)
• But whereas through haste he missed of giving himself a sure wound, and the crowd was breaking into the doors, he ran boldly to the wall, and manfully threw himself down to the crowd: (2Mcc14:43)
• For thou hast done manfully, and thy heart has been strengthened, because thou hast loved chastity, and after thy husband hast not known any other: therefore also the hand of the Lord hath strengthened thee, and therefore thou shalt be blessed for ever. (Jud 15:11)

(Note that we are using the traditional names of the books of the Bibles, so “1Par” might be converted to “1 Chronicles”.)

It is useful to note that four of the eleven uses of the word viriliter occur in the books of the Maccabees; that is, in books in which a small force of those loyal to the Lord fight a vastly superior foe in defense of the true religion, and occasionally suffer martyrdom for it. It is also worth noting that in the last-cited of these uses, the great men of Israel are speaking to Judith, a woman; and yet they still state that she has “done manfully” (fecisti viriliter), showing us that acting manfully in the Scriptures means something a little different than what we might consider “masculine” (likely with the adjective “toxic”) today.

Cassel's Latin Dictionary gives us viriliter as “manfully, couragously, vigorously”, and cites nothing to the Vulgate but to both Cicero and Horace. Cicero, indeed, did use the word on occasion, perhaps most famously in his book of public offices, De Officiis: Quod enim viriliter animoque magno fit, id dignum viro et decorum videtur, quod contra, id ut turpe, sic indecorum. “For what is done manfully, with a great soul, that is worthy and honorable for a man; what is not, is repulsive and disgraceful.” Cicero also made a note regarding barbarians with this word:

Itaque barbari quidam et immanes ferro decertare acerrime possunt, ægrotare viriliter non queunt. “Therefore, the barbarians and the savage can fight most bitterly with iron, but they cannot be sick manfully.” (II Tusc. Disp.)

In other words, while they could fight very bravely and with great skill, they're still not civilized men; they can't be sick like a man, or more broadly, suffer like a man. Age viriliter is a rallying cry for all of life, not just for the “traditionally masculine” realms of war and lifting. We must act manfully always; we must even be sick manfully, lest we behave like the barbarians.

Fundamentally, we are talking here about acting virtuously, about proceeding with the right course of action despite difficulty, even grave difficulty, in doing so. St. Thomas comments on the word as used in the Scriptures in several places.

First, in his commentary on St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, specifically on verse 13:7 (charity “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things”), St. Thomas says:

But as much as [charity] orders and perfects to God, so much firstly it is ordered and perfects to the tolerance of temporal evils, and therefore it says that it [charity] beareth all things; that is, it makes man ready for patiently sustaining all adversities… secondly, inasmuch as it is ordered and pertains to goods, so much it is ordered and pertains to understanding in the obedience of faith, for it believeth all things; it does not say quickly, but all things; that is, it believes in God in all things, for nothing is impossible to God… inasmuch as it is ordered and pertains to a state in the joy of hope, for it hopeth all things which the truth promises… in the patience of expectation, for it sustains all things; for he who defers whatever he hopes is not broken… act manfully, etc. (Ps. 30:25)

St. Thomas quotes Ps. 30, of course, but also gives us a brilliant exposition of what Ps. 30's phrase, viriliter agite, really means. It is no accident that St. Thomas cites this great psalm, using this word “manfully”, when discussing St. Paul's beautiful exposition regarding charity. For “manfully” means, truly, charity; namely, it tolerates temporal evils, it defers what it hopes for, it believes in what God has said, because nothing is impossible with God. And he elaborates on this in other places. In the Catena aurea in Matthæum (cap. 4 l. 7), for example, St. Thomas notes that St. Andrew's principal symbolic virtue is manfulness, noting that he contributes viriliter labores patiendo, by suffering labors manfully: “Through Andrew, which signifies ‘manly’ or ‘honorable’, is understood the gentle people who after recognition of God remain manfully in the faith.” Note here that it's remaining manfully in the faith that is important; it is enduring the trials which attempt to take us away from the faith that Andrew represents. And it is doing this while being “gentle”, as St. Thomas mentions. This concept of viriliter is utterly alien both to modern emasculated notions of action and to the caricatures of masculinity which still pop up in certain circles of discourse.

Still, saying viriliter is not just another way of saying “virtuously”. It is specifically acting virtuously under this aspect of fortitude; that is, of persisting in the good acts of the Faith even though they are difficult; perhaps especially because they are difficult. We “patiently sustain all adversities”; we defer what we hope for; we keep the Faith, come what may. We know that the right thing is hard; we pursue it anyway. We act manfully, and thus we worthily serve Our Lord, Who acted more manfully than any of us could.

Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat!