Giotto: The Virtues and Vices ~ Faith

Fides 

Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen Because of it the ancients were well attested.By faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the word of God, so that what is visible came into being through the invisible. Hebrews 11:1-3

But without faith it is impossible to please him, for anyone who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6

Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith “man freely commits his entire self to God.” For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God’s will. “The righteous shall live by faith.” Living faith “work[s] through charity.”* Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1814, * Rom 1:17; Gal 5:6

The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it: “All however must be prepared to confess Christ before men and to follow him along the way of the Cross, amidst the persecutions which the Church never lacks.”82 Service of and witness to the faith are necessary for salvation: “So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”* Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1816 * Mt 10:32-33

But you, beloved, who possess this faith, or who have begun now newly to have it, let it be nourished and increase in you. For as things temporal have come, so long before foretold, so will things eternal also come, which are promised. Concerning Faith of Things Not Seen, 11, Augustine of Hippo

Faith stands straight and clear-eyed, and watched over by two angels. On her head she wears some kind of hat or crown that is reminiscent of a church spire--she is found under or within the Church. In her left hand she holds a scroll, I wish that I could find an image where the text was big enough to read, but I can't. John Ruskin, who wrote about the chapel, says it is the Apostle's Creed. On her left breast, there appears to be some sort of badge. It looks to me as if it might be some kind of  Dominican cross, or perhaps it is a guild badge. Her garment seems to be torn in places, as though she has been under some sort of attack. In her right hand she bears a cross atop a staff that is resting on some debris, which on closer inspection is a shattered body, the face of which looks like it might be a demon, or perhaps it is a heretic. Her left foot stand upon some books which are presumably false doctrine. They appear to have evil faces on them. She stands on a rock, no tilting floor for her. There is an inscription, but it has been almost completely obliterated. 

Faith is the first of the theological virtues. The cardinal virtues are the virtues of natural men. They are habits which can be practiced and strengthened by our efforts alone. The theological virtues are infused by God. They, . . . 

adapt man’s faculties for participation in the divine nature: for the theological virtues relate directly to God. They dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have the One and Triune God for their origin, motive, and object. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1812

AMDG