Fruit of the Holy Spirit

Not to be confused with Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Stained glass window at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, depicting the Fruit of the Holy Spirit along with Biblical role models representing them: the Good Shepherd representing love, an angel holding a scroll with the Gloria in excelsis Deo representing joy and Jesus Christ, Job representing longsuffering, Jonathan faith, Ruth gentleness and goodness, Moses meekness, and John the Baptist temperance. Executed by Hardman & Co. in the 1870s.[1]

The Fruit of the Holy Spirit (sometimes referred to as the Fruits of the Holy Spirit[2]) is a biblical term that sums up nine attributes of a person or community living in accord with the Holy Spirit, according to chapter 5 of the Epistle to the Galatians: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."[3] The fruit is contrasted with the works of the flesh discussed in the previous verses.

The Catholic Church follows the Latin Vulgate version of Galatians in recognizing twelve attributes of the Fruit: charity (caritas), joy (gaudium), peace (pax), patience (patientia), benignity (benignitas), goodness (bonitas), longanimity (longanimitas), mildness (mansuetudo), faith (fides), modesty (modestia), continency (continentia), and chastity (castitas).[4] This tradition was defended by Thomas Aquinas in his work Summa Theologica,[5] and reinforced in numerous Catholic catechisms, including the Baltimore Catechism, the Penny Catechism, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

  1. ^ "CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, CHRISTCHURCH PLACE, CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL (CI)". Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720–1940. Irish Architectural Archive. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Aquinas was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Galatians 5:22–23
  4. ^ Galatians 5:22–23: Fructus autem Spiritus est caritas, gaudium, pax, patientia, benignitas, bonitas, longanimitas, mansuetudo, fides, modestia, continentia, castitas. Adversus hujusmodi non est lex.
  5. ^ Cross, F. L.; Livingstone, E. A., eds. (1998). The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 644. ISBN 0-19-211655-X.