ABSTRACT
This text analyses the moral and religious instructions from Doctor in Theology and French Bishop Francisco de Sales (1567-1622) in his work 'Introdução à vida devota' [1609], particularly in its relation to the feeling of sadness. We detain ourselves over the meanings of sadness, its "good" and "bad" effects and the "remedies" presented to combat it, as well as the medical and philosophical meanings shared at the time - which used humorism to understand the reasons and effects of melancholy -, especially in the Portuguese context of the 17th and 18th centuries, a period of increase of the reading of works of a spiritual nature in Portugal, as well as a period of diffusion of Salesian works.
Keywords:
Francisco de Sales; sadness; melancholy; reading; Portugal