Understanding Your Temperament: A Catholic Perspective

Jerry Meyer
January 14, 2025

Read Time: 3 to 5 minutes

TL;DR: Understanding your temperament (Choleric, Melancholic, Sanguine, or Phlegmatic) from a Catholic perspective helps you understand your strengths, weaknesses, and spiritual journey. It's not a label, but a tool for self-awareness and growth toward holiness. Each temperament has unique challenges and virtues to cultivate with God's grace.

Table of Contents

or centuries, the study of temperaments has helped people understand themselves and others better. While not a rigid categorization, understanding your temperament can offer valuable insight into your strengths, weaknesses, and spiritual journey. This Catholic perspective on the four temperaments—Choleric, Melancholic, Sanguine, and Phlegmatic—can illuminate your path towards holiness.

What is a Temperament?

A temperament isn't a box to confine you, nor an excuse for shortcomings. It's the raw material of your personality, representing your natural preferences and reactions. It's inherent to who you are, shaped by God's creation, and remains relatively constant throughout your life. It influences how you respond to situations, but doesn't determine your actions or define your identity. Remember, sin is separate from your identity; you are called to strive for holiness regardless of your temperament.

The Four Temperaments:

Choleric: Energetic, passionate, and often driven. Cholerics are task-oriented leaders, but may struggle with anger, pride, and impatience. They can benefit from cultivating gentleness, humility, and patience. Think of St. Paul, St. Jerome, and St. Francis de Sales as examples.
Melancholic: Deep thinkers and feelers, often compassionate and gifted artistically. Melancholics might struggle with self-criticism, moodiness, and despondency. Cultivating joy, selflessness, and hope are crucial. Saints John the Apostle, Therese of Lisieux, and Bernard of Clairvaux exemplify this temperament.
Sanguine: Lively, sociable, and optimistic individuals. Sanguines often make friends easily, but may struggle with superficiality, impulsiveness, and lack of perseverance. They can benefit from cultivating depth, perseverance, and purity. St. Teresa of Avila and St. Francis Xavier are examples.
Phlegmatic: Calm, patient, and tolerant, phlegmatics possess a rich inner life. They may struggle with laziness, passivity, and a tendency to please others at their own expense. Cultivating fortitude, ambition, and strength of will is important. St. Thomas Aquinas and Pope John XXIII are often cited as examples.

Temperaments and Spiritual Growth:

Understanding your temperament is crucial for spiritual growth. It helps identify both strengths and weaknesses, allowing for more effective self-awareness and prayer. By recognizing your natural tendencies, you can better focus on developing virtues that counterbalance your weaknesses and enhance your strengths, all through God's grace.

"Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering."

Saint Augustine

(Confessions, Book 10, Chapter 8)

Augustine laments how people often neglect to reflect inwardly, despite the profound mystery of their own soul.

A Note on Secondary Temperaments:

It's important to remember that most individuals exhibit a blend of temperaments, not just one pure type. For instance, someone might be Melancholic-Choleric, combining the deep feeling of the Melancholic with the drive of the Choleric.

In Summary, What Does Your Temperament Mean to You:

Knowing your temperament offers invaluable self-knowledge, fostering self-compassion and understanding of others. It's a tool to guide your spiritual journey, helping you navigate challenges and cultivate virtues. Embrace your temperament as a gift from God, striving to use it for His glory and the betterment of the world. Remember, Jesus Christ, the perfect model, embodied all temperaments harmoniously, demonstrating the potential for growth and holiness in each one.