June 19 Venerable Matt Talbot

Venerable Matt Talbot (1856-1925)

June 19                                                       

            Matt is considered the patron saint of those struggling with alcoholism. Matt Talbot walked the streets of Dublin as a mystic soul and an ambassador for Christ. He was born in Dublin, where his father worked on the docks and had a hard time supporting a family. After a few years of schooling, Matt obtained work as a messenger for some liquor merchants; there he began to drink excessively. From age 12 to 28, Matt was a very active alcoholic! Although he had the reputation of being a hard worker, his work ethic was simply the means by which to finance his "hard drinking."

            One day he decided to take “the pledge” for three months, make a general confession, and begin to attend daily Mass. Matt’s first seven years after making this pledge were especially hard. Avoiding his former drinking places was nearly impossible. He began to pray as intensely as he used to drink. He also tried very hard to pay back people from whom he had borrowed or stolen money while he was drinking.

            Most of his life Matt worked on the Dublin docks, like his father had. He joined the Secular Franciscan Order and began a life of strict penance. He strictly abstained from meat nine months a year. Matt taught himself to read and, as he did so, effectively began a course of study that included the Bible and other spiritual classics, the lives of saints, doctrinal books, and works of mystical and ascetical theology. Though his job did not make him rich, Matt contributed heartily to the missions. On an otherwise blank page in one of Matt’s books, the following is written: “God console thee and make thee a saint. To arrive at the perfection of humility, four things are necessary: to despise the world, to despise no one, to despise self, to despise being despised by others.”

            After 1923 his health failed, and Matt was forced to quit work. He remained sober for 41 years. He collapsed and died from heart failure on his way to church on Trinity Sunday. Fifty years later, Pope Paul VI gave him the title “Venerable.”

            He had to take one day at a time. So do the rest of us.