"gegenüber etw. [Dat.] geduldig sein" or "mit etw. [Dat.] geduldig sein"

Question

Which preposition can one use with Geduld or geduldig sein? Are they both the same?

Example with geduldig:

Sei geduldig gegenüber den Plagen

or

Sei geduldig mit den Plagen

Example with Geduld:

Die Geduld gegenüber den weltlichen Plagen

or

Die Geduld mit den weltlichen Plagen

Answer 1

You use die Geduld for sentences like:

Ich habe viel Geduld. (I have a lot of patience.)

Geduldig sein, on the other hand, means being patient.

Germans also say habe (etwas) Geduld (have some patience) more often instead of sei geduldig.

Answer 2

Beide.

Mehr ist nicht zu sagen; beide sind korrekt.

Answer 3

This is quite tricky to answer because there is more than one aspect you have to take into account.

1. Gegenüber is placed in front of a noun only as an exception to the rule. It is usually placed after the noun. Here are some examples from duden.de:

   • gegenüber dem Rathaus / (auch:) dem Rathaus gegenüber steht die Kirche
   • Ludwigshafen liegt Mannheim gegenüber
   • sie ist älteren Leuten gegenüber besonders höflich
   • mir gegenüber wagt er das nicht zu sagen
   • er ist gegenüber allen Reformen/allen Reformen gegenüber sehr zurückhaltend
   • sie ist dir gegenüber im Vorteil
   • gegenüber dem vergangenen Jahr verdient er mehr

   You can see from these examples that you rather place gegenüber before the noun like a "classic" preposition when it refers to a more abstract entity (Reformen, vergangenes Jahr) as opposed to nouns indicating real persons or things. Whereas this would fit in with Plagen, this word is no longer used in everyday German but confined to literary use and a religious context, as Hulk pointed out in the first comment. As a feeling, saying

   geduldig den Plagen gegenüber

   would seem more appropriate, syntactically. But there remains a semantic issue, as gegenüber isn't really the appropriate choice for introducing a condition you can't interact with. For this, you have better alternatives, like

   geduldig angesichts der Plagen

2. Geduldig sein mit, as has also been pointed out in a comment, indicates an active way of dealing with a person or an object as opposed to a situation:

   Ich war bisher sehr geduldig mit dir, aber jetzt reicht es mir!
   Ich hatte viel Geduld mit dieser verdammten Waschmaschine, aber jetzt kommt sie auf den Müll!

   but you wouldn't say, "Ich war bisher sehr geduldig mit dem Wetter" because there is no way of actively dealing with the weather. Which also pertains to Plagen, as you can't command them, either.

3. Then there is the question in what context you wanted to use this phrase. As it was put in the first version of your question (is since has been edited to Sei geduldig...), you can only use it as an apposition:

   Geduldig angesichts der Plagen, war er ein Vorbild für alle anderen Gläubigen.

   But geduldig is primarily used as an adverb:

   Geduldig wartete sie, bis sie an der Reihe war.
   Er ertrug geduldig alle Plagen.

4. Used in an imperative, both gegenüber and mit are problematic as they practically summon you to "do something", whereas geduldig and Geduld imply, as Webster's Dictionary puts it for the English equivalent patience, the bearing of provocation, misfortune, pain etc. without complaint — in other words, doing nothing.

So, the best way to say that somebody should bear troubles etc. patiently is to just say it:

Ertrage die Plagen mit Geduld.
Ertrage geduldig alle Plagen.

If you want to use Geduld in the context of Plagen as a philosophical or religious category, for example, the best choice would be angesichts:

Die Geduld angesichts der Plagen.
Geduld angesichts von Plagen

Answer 4

The preposition does not matter in my experience. Having grown up in Southern Germany, geduldig mit is a little more common than the geduldig gegenüber, but both are correct. Dito for Geduld mit/gegenüber.

The benefactor of patience is more interesting here, I think. While there might be special texts using it that way, I don't think you can have Geduld with something that is not a person, institution, group etc. One of the commenters pointed out you can have Geduld mit/gegenüber diseases, the weather, natural events etc, but I disagree in the sense that I have not heard or read someone using it that way and find it odd.
This might have changed in time.
Particularly the given example "Die Geduld gegenüber den weltlichen Plagen" sounds quite strange to me. My reference point is 2015 Standard German as spoken in Munich though, so in special domains or in past versions of the language, it might have been valid to connect Geduld mit with a thing, concept etc.