This is how his first biographer, Louis Abelly, described Vincent de Paul’s personality: “He was most accessible and of marvelously kind and wonderful disposition. He was of bilious and sanguine temperament.”
“Bilious” (or choleric) and “sanguine” temperaments are two of the four medieval personality types as classified by ancient Greek medicine. Hippocrates thought that one’s temperament was linked to four bodily fluids, then called “humors.” A healthy personality was achieved by a balance of these bodily juices: blood (sanguine), yellow bile (choleric), black bile (melancholic), and phlegm (phlegmatic).
“Bilious” was connected to “yellow bile” (referring to the elements of fire and summer), which explains one’s decisive, energetic, but also intense, fiery, and ambitious leader-like capacities. “Sanguine” was connected to “blood” (referring to air and spring), which explains an optimistic, outgoing, creative, but also quite impulsive personality.
The Latin word temperare, from which the English word “temperament” comes, means “to mix.” This temperament mapping sought a balanced mixture of all these humors to achieve a healthy and balanced personality. Though this medieval theory was popular in the time of St. Vincent, it was abandoned in the 1850s.
If Vincent had a sanguine temperament, his personality was characterized by optimism, amiability, and cheerfulness. People found joy in relating with him, and he related deeply with them. His person commanded respect, but instead of instilling fear, he opened others’ hearts, inspiring confidence and tenderness.
Another important personal quality of Vincent was his sensitivity: the capacity to enter into the feelings of others. Today, we call this empathy. He was able to enter into the hearts of the religious and clergy of his time, into the feelings of powerful magistrates and the ladies of the court.
But beyond all these people of rank, he had empathy for the sufferings and loneliness of the poor, whom this hierarchical society had marginalized.
When the Daughters of Charity were once entrusted with the management of a hospital where the nuns formerly in charge were still to stay there for some time, Vincent advised them to be particularly careful by “entering into their feelings.”
“There are Sisters in that house now who have charge of the children. If they are there and remain under your orders … they must be treated with the greatest gentleness, cordiality, and forbearance. For they are persons who have perhaps been there for some time and who hope to remain there. It seems a dishonor to themselves and to their relations that they are leaving or that others are coming to reform them. That is a very important point, my Daughters, and you must enter into their feelings and believe that, if their hearts are not embittered, at least they are deeply grieved.”
But because Vincent was also “bilious,” or choleric, he was decisive, hot-tempered, impetuous, and prone to harsh actions. He truly admired his friend Francis de Sales, the bishop of Geneva, for his meekness. Gentleness was not Vincent’s natural quality. If ever he was meek in his old age or advised others to do the same, he worked at it his whole life. He himself admitted that he was rough and repellent.
“Some people have a smiling and pleasant manner; they please everybody, God having given them this grace by which they seem to offer their heart to you and to ask for yours. There are others, like myself, who are rough and have an oppressed, sad, surly appearance, which frightens and even disconcerts people. The missionaries, who by their vocation have to exercise their ministry among country people … should adopt these appealing manners which capture hearts.”
Vincent’s determination also made things happen, characteristic of a choleric personality. Sometimes he could push things a little too hard, especially when he was convinced of them. Many priests and brothers sent to the Madagascar mission died from shipwreck, disease, fatigue, and the harsh climate. Not a few confreres objected to sending more missionaries, but Vincent persisted.
Thus, his advice not to go ahead of Divine Providence was also a reminder to himself, an antidote to his impulsive temperament: “Let us abandon ourselves to the providence of God and be very careful not to run ahead of it.”
His natural affability captivated those around him, but it was his persistence and determination that moved things toward the fulfillment of the Kingdom in our midst. The work of his sons and daughters, the hardships they underwent, and their endurance in the missions speak much of the passionate tenacity of their founder.
Using contemporary language, Vincent de Paul did not only have a high IQ (intelligence quotient) and EQ (emotional quotient); he also had a good SQ (social quotient) and AQ (adversity quotient).
In one of his self-reflexive moments, St. Vincent prayed:
“My God, I am only a weak human being and capable of giving in at the first assault. But by your pure loving kindness, you have called me. May your infinite goodness, please, help me persevere. For my part, with your holy grace, I will try with all my strength to summon up all the service and faithfulness that you ask of me.”
Father Daniel Franklin Pilario, C.M., is the President of Adamson University in Manila. He is a theologian, professor, and pastor of an urban poor community on the outskirts of the Philippine capital. He is also the Vincentian Chair for Social Justice at St. John’s University in New York.
