Venerable Matt Talbot
(1856-1925)

Matt Talbot was born into poverty in inner city Dublin, Ireland in 1856. He began drinking at 12 years of age and became a chronic alcoholic and an addict. At the age of 28, after sixteen years of addiction, Matt pledged to get sober. On the first day of his pledge, he went to confession and received Holy Communion for the first time in years. A local priest helped Matt, giving him a rehabilitation program, which incorporated the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. After a horrendous struggle, Matt found sobriety through prayer and self-sacrifice and never touched a drink again.

Talbot successfully maintained sobriety for the following forty years of his life. He was known to his peers as a generous and happy man who gave much of his wage to the poor

With the help of his priest friend, Matt modeled his life on that of the monks, who lived in Ireland in the 6th and 7th centuries. It was a tough program of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. To his neighbors and his work mates he was a cheerful friend. He gave away most of his wages every week to the poor at home and abroad. He was keenly aware of his fellow workers struggle for social justice and a loyal member of Ireland's Transport and General Workers Union.

After a life of heroic perseverance, he died suddenly on the way to Mass June 7, 1925. His life’s story has been an inspiration for alcoholics and addicts throughout the world. In 1975 Pope Paul VI declared that Matt Talbot had practiced all the Christian virtues in a heroic degree. The Church gave him the title of Venerable, the first step toward sainthood and a declaration that Matt Talbot is a Christian worthy of veneration and imitation.

Matt Talbot Quote:
"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."

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