Venerable Matt Talbot (1856-1925)
Image: Catholic Fire
(Franciscan Media) Born in Ireland Dublin, Matt (Matthew) Talbot was born into a poor family with a history of alcoholism and so, Matt took to drinking yet when he was still a child according to SQPN and was considered a hopeless alcoholic by the age of thirteen.
Matt’s father worked on the docks and had a challenging time supporting his family–with just a few years of education, Matt was forced to find employment and obtained work as a Messenger for some liquor merchants, which didn’t help his alcohol addiction, there he began to drink even more excessively for the next 15 years.
When Matt was 28 an incident occurred that changed his entire life according to Catholic Ireland — For a week, Matt stayed away from work drinking quite heavily, at the end of the week, Matt found himself sober, thirsty but penniless. Confident that his co-workers for whom he often purchased alcohol from would come to his assistance now, Matt stood with his brother near O’Meara’s Pub on the North Strand to meet his friends coming from ‘Pemberton’s’ — the men just passed him in pairs but none stopped to ask the brothers if they would want to join them for a drink. Matt said later that he was “cut to the heart” by this treatment and went home.
Matt’s Mother preparing the midday meal looked up with surprise and exclaimed, “Matt you’re home early and you are sober.” After lunch, Matt turned to his Mother and said, “I’m going to take the pledge.” As Matt left the house his Mother said gently, “God give you strength to keep it.” From there, Matt went to ‘Holy Cross Church’ and according to his own account, went to Confession and took the pledge from Fr. Keane and kept that pledge the rest of his life.
From that time on, Matt attended daily Mass at 5:00 AM in ‘St. Francis Xavier’s Church’ before heading off to work one hour later–Following Matt’s evening meal, he would walk to a Church on the north side of the city where he prayed until it was about time for him to retire and go to bed in order to get up for the next day–this was to avoid the temptation of meeting up with his former buddies, as the effort to stay sober and quell his cravings for a dink was causing him immense suffering.
Every week evening, every Saturday afternoon and every Sunday morning, Matt was in Church–he gave up all of his former drinking companion friends (temptation) and confided only in his Mother — When Fr. John Cullen a Jesuit Priest, founded the ‘Pioneer Total Abstinence Assn’ in 1898 Matt became one of its first members.
From that day with his brother outside O’Meara’s Pub at the age of 28 when Matt’s drinking buddies ignored him and for the next 41 years of his life, Matt never took another drink.
On Sunday’s, Matt attended every Mass, only upon returning to his home at about 2:00 PM would he break his fast since 6:30 PM of the previous evening, the remainder of Matt’s time was spent in prayer, reading the Scriptures and about the lives of the Saints — Matt had also become very charitable with his money, donating what little he had to his neighbors in need and to missions.
On Matt’s way to Mass on ‘Trinity Sunday’ (07 June, 1925) he collapsed and died — Fifty years following his death on the 03 October, 1975 Matt was given the title ‘Venerable’ by Pope Paul VI
More here from Catholic Ireland.net