The primitive, poetical and naïve concept of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament had a particular impact and influence on the ways in which Francis de Sales pictures the Holy Spirit. He seems to have found the “unknown God” more accessible, more knowable in some ways through the pages of the Old Testament interpreted in the light of the New Testament.
He conceives of the Holy Spirit primarily as the breath of God and the sigh (soupir) of love that emanates from the Father and the Son:
For the divine love of the eternal Father toward the Son is expressed in one sole sigh (souspir), uttered reciprocally by the Father and the Son….The Father breathes (souspire) this love and the Son breathes (souspire) it also….Yet this sigh of love (souspir amoreux) is only one sigh (souspir), or one sole spirit uttered by two who sigh or breathe (souspirants)….In as much as this love is produced by way of sighs (souspirs) or inspirations, it is called the Holy Spirit.5
What is notable here is the saint’s use of the word souspire to sigh or to breathe rather than the verb respirer to express the most ineffable love affair, the inexhaustible source of all authentic love.https://www.desales.edu/docs/default-source/salesian-center-docs/ruah-of-eloim.pdf?Status=Temp&sfvrsn=44e335f8_4
Source: above, Fr Pocetto article