I was going to write a book about Matt Talbot one time so got to know the guy quite well and so thought I would write a few words on him. His story can be told briefly enough . He was a Dublin labourer and severe alcholic who converted and turned to his faith living a life of great holiness. He is considered a model for those suffering from addictions. I remember on several occasions attending men's Cursillo retreats which were composed off ordinary working class guys like myself and noticing how very often the difficulties they faced (and their poor wives and children) was drink and drug taking. But , here in Ireland, especially their drinking habits. One man spoke of the case being that in the area were he grew up the men could go to one of three places, the pubs and drink, the bookmakers and bet or the Irish Republican Army and fight. Many gentlemen did all three. I am afraid I do not go out socialising now but I understand from people whom I talk to that drugs, especially cocaine have taken as high , or higher place than even drink on the list of addictions. Sometimes I do see people who are addicted to other drugs such as heroin and I even know one Irish country town were heroin is so endemic they call these poor lost souls , 'The stick insects' and compare them to a tribe of locusts they steel so much. Perhaps given this modern plague of addictions Matt's message of hope needs to be heard ever more clearly in our world.
The Ireland Matt was born into around the turn of the last century was at one of its very lowest ebbs. During the famine approximately 1 million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the island's population to fall by between 20% and 25%. just a generation before. The country people were driven in their many thousands to the Irish capital City of Dublin were they lived in appalling housing conditions often dying very early from endemic diseases such as TB. One Polish visitor who had travelled right across Europe described conditions he found here as the worst he had ever seen. Visitors also reported however that the Irish while enduring this showed an astonished joy and gaiety.
Padraig Here he is listed in the 1901 census in Mountjoy Street, Dublin with his mother Elizabeth who was widowed. http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai003764126/ In 1911 he resided Rutland Street, Dublin http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000062254/
Matt Talbot's relics visited Galway Cathedral only last week - wish I could've gone to venerate them. http://ballinfoyleparish.blogspot.ie/2014/10/matt-talbot-relics.html
It is wonderful the way they have digitalised these records Bobby. The family kept moving from house to house I suppose like all poor people they had problems with bad land lords and paying the rent.
I never realised he had such an appalling struggle to stay of the drink. In the Days before AA Doctors considered alcoholism incurable and with very good reason
I was always meaning to visit his tomb in Gardiner Street when down in Dublin Miriam . But a friend warned me it is in a bad area. I must try and call in the next time around http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/tomb-of-matt-talbot-dublin
I haven't forgotten Matt. I slept very badly the last couple of nights and so couldn't post. I hope to write tomorrow about his penitential life which was just mind blowing. If God gives me a non penitential nights sleep I will write about it in the morning. I am black mailing him (God) One comment I would make about his lifestyle , I don't see how anyone could have survived a month living as he did with hard manual labour doing the kind of fasting and penance he did without falling down dead unless he had supernatural help. I know Our Lady visited him regularly so maybe this is part of the answer.
I feel when reading some of Matt's penances a deep sense of religious awe and almost fear. Let me see if I can list a few of the things he got up too. he slept on a bed of planks with a tile for a pillow. He knelt bolt upright for many hours a day with his bare knees on the ground (anyone who has tried this even for five or so minutes will realise how hard this is). He lunch appears to have consisted of a mixture of cocoa and tea tea mixed together and drunk cold. At evening time a few slices of bread taken with the same dreadful mixture (yuk) . He never ate fish or meat. He wore chains round his body as a penance. They discovered this when they took his body to the morgue after he died of heart seizure on his way to Church in the 1920's. These chains were preserved as relics and apparently a medal of Our Lady was attached to them. This makes me suspect that they may have had something to do with being a , 'Slave of Mary', as per St Louis Grignion De Montford' in 'True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary' http://www.ewtn.com/library/montfort/truedevo.htm I don't think any of us will ever know the many penances of Matt Talbot , for they were done in secret and intended by that saintly man to stay secret: Matthew 6:16 Proper Fasting 16"Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 17"But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face… But the question draws us at once to ask, 'What drew this holy man to such extremes of truly awesome penance?
The key to Matt Talbot's spiritual/ penetential life was that he was a soldier in a war. He was fighting in the trenches for his souls. He knew that the devil was gunning for his soul . Because of his massive addiction Matt knew he was in front line spiritual combat with the devil. He knew what we Catholics used to be taught from early childhood but no longer are that: 'The first duty of every Christian is to save their own souls'. That sounds very grim and kinda selfish but , you know, if we don't save our own souls there is no way we are going to save anyone else's. Like a good Marine Matt knew he had to take up the weapons of combat and those weapons were daily fasting and penance, without which Matt would never ever have won the war. We in modern times however have become not like people fighting hand to hand in the trenches but more like folks who are going for a stroll across the golf green. We have forgotten ,too often the lessons of the cross. I was watching recently in admiration an old HBO series called, Pacific'. It tells the story of the United States Marines who fought across the little islands in the Pacific during the Second World War. There is i scene in it which reminds me of Matt Talbot. A young Marine Corporal had been writing home to a girl called Vera he had fallen for. When he got home he called over to ask her out but a newly commisioned army Lt from West Point calls to take her out. He comments to the army officer that he has seen no action, were as he has been up to his neck in it. TO which the young officer has just no answer:
Without this understanding of the hard blood and guts spiritual combat of fasting and penance we end up with a heavily feminized religion of pink fuzz , kittens and the golf club stroll. Hell and Satan are no longer a reality, everyone's religion is all the same. Sin an unfortunate trip up easily got over in the perpetual joyful summer time of the spiritual life. Addictions are commonplace, as is falling away from religious practice. For is we're all going to heaven , no mater what , well why bother. Let's just use life to lie in the sun and relax. But Matt was a blood and guts kind of guy. He was if you like a spiritual marine. He knew that it very much did matter what we say and do. he got down into the fox holes and fought the devil hand to hand the only way any good Catholic knows how , with the the hard core bayonets of fasting and penance. NO CROSS. NO CROWN. NO WAR. NO MEDALS View attachment 2338 http://www.marineswwii.com/john_basilone.php
Venerable Matt Talbot was indeed a spiritual marine of a very high rank. He knew that his penances had a coredeeming value and he did them out of love for Christ, for Our Lady, and for the salvation of his soul and the soul of others. Me, I am rather a spiritual wimp but hope to get to 'officer's training' school as soon as possible! We will need such spiritual officers desperately very soon.
Sometimes we go to the war. More often than not the war comes to us. The greatest war in history is out there right at our door , waiting to come in.
In the early days of my conversion heavy penitential acts seemed the only way in my mind. When I read St Therese's Story of a Soul I thought she was some light weight that slipped through the Church's discernment process. I was more impressed with the likes of St Margaret Mary Alacoque eating other peoples vomit. Where I am now I think great care needs to be exercised in this regard. If massive penitential acts can become a source of pride then more harm is done than good. I want to do the bread and water fast on Weds and Fri but I rarely can anymore, even though a few years ago it was not problem. When I ask Mary to help me fast if that is what God wants, usually something will happen that propels me into an act of social mercy and breaks the fast of that day. A fast day now tends to involve pleasure delayed rather than pleasure denied. That's my thoughts, and I still manage to be a proud greedy guts!
thank you Padraig....I am a recovering alcoholic for many years.....I attend Matt Talbot retreats annually. When I went to confession years ago and told the priest I had a problem with alcohol, he told me as my penance to read "To Slake A Thirst"....it is the story of Matt Talbot. Eventually, I was able to crawl into AA and get help....but Matt led me there. I so want to go visit his tomb and thank him....
