A Look at Venerable Matt Talbot

What can we learn and how can we apply it to our lives?

May 03, 2024

Good Afternoon and God Bless You!

Today I wanted to take some time to look over the life of Venerable Matt Talbot. What can we learn from his struggle with alcoholism? How can we use this example to become a better imitation of Christ in our daily lives?

“Take me as your pattern, just as I take Christ for mine. I congratulate you for remembering me so consistently and for maintaining the traditions exactly as I passed them on to you.” — Paul the Apostle, 1 Corinthians 11:1-2 Catholic Bible

Venerable Matt Talbot’s Life

Matt was born in the tenements of Dublin, Ireland; one of twelve children. His father, working the docks and being an alcoholic himself, struggled to provide for his family. Matt only attended formal schooling for a single year (Ballinteer Parish) before he found work with liquor merchants as a messenger, he could not read or write. He began to drink excessively, living this way for almost 15 years.

A Saturday afternoon came like any other, except this time Matt found himself without a drink or a job. God’s grace gave Matt a moment of clarity to see how he had been wasting his life and at 28 he finally saw himself, “a fool who had nothing to show for his life,” (Costa, 2016).

He decided to take the pledge for three months after making a general confession at Dublin Seminary, returning six months later to pledge off of alcohol for life. At the time, “alcoholics often made a promise to God in the presence of a priest as a sign that they were going to give up drinking,” (Saints Resource). He then began attending daily Mass, struggling to avoid old drinking spots for at least seven years.

“Those three months were sheer hell. We understand today the withdrawal symptoms of addiction, but in 1884 Matt Talbot had no one to share his suffering - the hallucination, the depression, the nausea” (Ballinteer Parish).

There were no specific twelve steps or other help lines or Alcoholics Anonymous for Matt, but he participated in a recovery program that “focused on daily Mass, devotion to the Eucharist, a love for Mary, and spiritual reading” (Costa, 2016): he learned to read so he could read the Scriptures (Costa, 2016). His prayer life expanded to rival his old drinking habit and he almost compulsively tried to pay back people who he had either borrowed or stolen money from for his drinking.

The majority of his professional career was as a builder’s laborer, and he became a member of the Secular Franciscan Order and began a life of strict penance, oft referred to as an ‘urban ascetic’ (Costa, 2016). Nine months out of the year were for abstinence from meat, and hours every night were spent reading Scripture and the lives of the saints. His job, while not making him extremely rich in earthly value, allowed Matt to contribute generously to missions.

After 1923, his health failing, Matt was forced to quit working. He died on his way to church on Trinity Sunday, and fifty years later he was given the title of Venerable by Pope Paul VI.

His liturgical feast is celebrated on June 19th, and he is considered patron of men and women struggling with alcoholism (Franciscan Media).

“With Christ’s help, we who live and abide in Him will never be separated from His body and His grace.” — St. Cyprian

I sat with this story of Matt’s life for quite a few days. Compared to some other Saints with crazy stories, charisms, and the like it can be hard to imagine anything special about Matt Talbot. I was moved by his story however and wanted to mull it over.

If I could give anyone one thing to take away from the life of Matt Talbot is that whenever you are going to remove something sinful from your life to make room, you need to fill that space with something Godly.

“Every goal is doomed to fail if it goes against the grain of human nature” — James Clear, ‘Atomic Habits’

This falls in line with leading productivity experts. James Clear, in his book Atomic Habits, says “A habit is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic,” (Clear, 2018). This is due to four steps, Cue, Craving, Response, Reward. James Clear has Four Laws of Behavior Change to help adjust for new habits: make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying (Clear, 2018).

Matt Talbot, by the grace of God, discovered this formula a long time ago. He attended daily Mass and prayed constantly, learning to read so he could study the Scripture and the saints lives. He built a new habit in place of the old one. The first steps for this are small.

Pragmatically, it takes a decision on your part. It is not a decision you will likely be capable of on your own, but it is the decision to run away from your sin and run to God. The running towards something is the important part. You feel the urge to drink again, kneel down and begin praying the our father, the Holy Rosary, something. Make it easy, and obvious. Carry a Rosary (I would recommend doing this regardless, as we all could certainly benefit from having a Holy Rosary on our persons) everywhere and make it the obvious choice whenever you feel the urge to return to sin.

Making it attractive to some may seem like it can become tough, but choosing to obey God, while not easy, is one of the most beautiful uses of free will possible by an individual. God, Heaven, the Eucharist, the other Sacraments such as marriage; these are all beautiful and extremely attractive to those of us who believe, and to those who don’t! Focus on the beauty, let it wash over you and inform your sense of taste and how you perceive beauty and what actions become attractive.

I, for an example, have begun collecting Catholic Literature and Art, and I have begun attending Mass as a Catechumen. I am trying to change my media and visual intake consciously, so that subconsciously my taste for what is beautiful and Right and Just is slowly conformed more and more to God. Matt Talbot did this very action attending daily Mass, participating in the sacrament of Reconciliation, and being free with his personal possessions to contribute them to the Church, Missions, and helping those in need inside of his community.

“Rule 2: Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping” — Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, ‘12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos’

Venerable Matt Talbot can teach us all the benefits of devotion to God, and is an example of the Grace of God in light of the fact that none of us deserve this gift. In our daily life we can take away this absic principle; Effectively running away from Sin must inevitably be coupled with running towards Christ, else we shall fall right back down the hill we are climbing.

I will be praying for you that you may see the life of Venerable Matt Talbot and be blessed with Hope in Jesus Christ that you too can leave whatever dire habitual sin you find yourself in. Please pray for me, God Bless You.