The Latin word vir indicates more than just a "male"; it also has a heroic sense, meaning a man who has fully realized his masculinity as a protector or warrior. Pilate, blind to the truth, declared "ecce homo," "behold the human." But for the Christian, Christ is the full realization of manliness, the true Vir.

For the Roman, the proper qualities of a vir are the Cardinal Virtues—prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. St. Thomas Aquinas, drawing on the Fathers, acknowledges their importance but crowns them with the Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity and finds the origin of all of them in the gifts of the Holy Spirit at baptism.

The Gospels, being fundamentally stories and not primarily theological treatises, do not provide any such list. Instead, they provide an image, contained first in the Sermon on the Mount, and then fully realized in the Man whom Pontius Pilate points out at Gabbatha.

St. Thomas observes that the virtues are the sources of the Beatitudes (or, elsewhere, the Fruits of the Holy Spirit) which serve as an image of the perfected Christian and so a self portrait of Christ. We should note this well; it is not an explanation or an abstract definition that Our Lord provides but first an image in words and then a living image of the Living Word of the Father.

This is the image that we must have in mind when we assert that we are raising men intended for heaven. For as St. John the Evangelist says, "we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."

The saints are provided by grace as unique hand-made representations, you might say, of the perfect image. However, living men (i.e., works of sanctity still under construction) are also crucial examples for Christian men, particularly those first setting out.  Consequently, the education of young men in holiness will rest ultimately not on the setting or design of the program, its curriculum, or any other thing. It will depend on the virtue and sanctity of its teachers.