Piety and Personality: The Temperaments of the Saints

Are you grappling with traits that feel more flawed than saintly? Whether you’re impulsive like St. Peter, assertive like St. Paul, or even unpredictable like St. Mary Magdalene, your unique personality is not just a path to heaven, but a canvas for holiness.
God has designed every temperament with the capacity to reflect His glory. Jesus Christ, as in all things, is our ultimate example because he is the perfection of all four temperaments. By following Christ, we meet many saints along the way; saints who may have had the same weaknesses we face, or who endured similar trials in this life. Learning about the saints’ lives and how they used their temperaments to their advantage will orient us towards perfection in Christ.
With vivid biographical anecdotes, Rosemary McGuire Berry will show you saints who have a similar temperament to yours, and through them, you will have the opportunity to learn how to master the strengths and weaknesses of your temperament. Each chapter focuses on one saint but also incorporates others related to that temperament. The chapters include a brief biography of the saint, a discussion on his temperament via examples from his life, reflections, and tips for specific temperaments.
Some saints discussed here include:

• St. Paul: Choleric
• St. Teresa of Ávila: Sanguine-Choleric
• St. Thomas Aquinas: Phlegmatic-Melancholic
• Mary Magdalene: Sanguine-Melancholic
• Simon: Sanguine

Piety and Personality: The Temperaments of the Saints shows you that even the weaknesses of your temperament can be perfected in Christ. The temperaments you will learn about through these pages may also help you better understand yourself and the people around you. By understanding your temperament, you can cooperate with God’s grace by following the examples of the saints!

Rosemary McGuire Berry is a lifelong Catholic reader, writer, and traveler who homeschools her daughters over pots of tea in a house filled with vintage books. She has a unique knowledge of hagiography and a background in journalism. She posts regularly about the saints on Instagram @rosemary.writer and writes weekly articles on Substack at RosemaryMcGuireBerry.substack.com. When she’s not leading pilgrimages with her husband and family to visit shrines and saints, she’s enjoying the blue skies of Colorado, where the mountains touch the sky. At heart, she is a storyteller.