PATRON OF ADDICTIONS

 

It seems there is a saint for every ill in our society and one who is called the patron of alcoholics will next year in Ireland celebrate the 100 anniversary of his death.

VENERABLE MATT TALBOT was born in 1856 in Dublin, Ireland into a poor working-class family. He was the second of 12 children, nine of whom survived beyond infancy.  He grew up surrounded by poverty and alcohol abuse during Ireland’s Great Famine.

He left school when still a  child and began working for a wine seller. It was there that he began drinking excessively, becoming an alcoholic at the age of about 13.

 His life spiraled and revolved around his next drink. He was often found in the bar, fighting, cursing, swearing, stealing, anything for a drink.

One incident that caused him shame for the rest of his life, was during his days on the drink he stole the fiddle of a street musician. He sold the instrument and used the money to buy the drink. After achieving sobriety, Matt tried to find the man from whom he stole the fiddle to pay him for the instrument. Unsuccessful in locating the victim of this theft, Matt donated the money to have a Mass said for the fiddler.

 After hitting rock bottom, Matt went to his mother, who had prayed unceasingly for her son’s conversion. He told his mother that he was going to take a pledge to stop drinking. She told him not to take it if he was not going to keep it.  He responded. "I will keep it by the grace of God”. He then went to Confession, making the pledge, and the next day received the Eucharist. He never drank again for the rest of his life. 

He was guided for most of his life by Michael Hickey, Professor of Philosophy in Clonliffe College. Under the professor's guidance, Mattt's reading became wider, studing Scripture and the lives of the saints. 

 After his conversion, Matt tried his best to make amends to the people he had hurt during his fifteen years as an active alcoholic. He paid back money to those he had borrowed or stolen from.

Matt never married but cared for his widowed mother until her death. He became a secular Franciscan, frequented the sacraments, and prayed the Rosary and the Stations of the Cross. He worked hard at his jobs to earn money to give to needy friends and neighbors and to charitable institutions and the missions. He lived simply, patterning himself on early Irish monks. He even became a mystic and practiced harsh penances.

 After 1923, Matt’s health began to fail and on Trinity Sunday, 1925, in the midst of a heat wave, he collapsed on his way to the 10:30 am Mass at the Dominican church in Dublin. It was only after his death, when penitential chains were discovered on his body, that attention was drawn to his life journey. The archdiocese opened an inquiry into Matt's holiness in 1931, and he was declared Venerable in 1975 by Pope (St.) Paul VI.

He never forgot his struggle though. He once said to his sister, “Never think harshly of a person because of the drink. It is easier to get out of hell then it is to give up the drink.” He then continued, “For me, it was only possible with the help of God and our Blessed Mother”.

Even after 100 years, Venerable Matt Talbot’s life continues to inspire those who battle addictions, showing the possibility of recovery, redemption, and the capacity to change, regardless of past mistakes.

 

Art:

Top: Terry Nelson

Middle: Noreen Flynn. Cathedral of SS Peter & Paul, Ennis, Ireland

Bottom: Terry Nelson- 2019