Venerable Matt Talbot (1856–1925)

Matthew Talbot lived in during an incredibly difficult time. He and his 13 siblings were born into poverty in shortly after the Irish Potato Famine claimed the lives of 1 million people and led another million to relocate to , England, and America.

Matt’s father, like other despairing people, succumbed to alcoholism and squandered much of his family’s income on the cheap whiskey that was widely available. Matt and his siblings spent little time in school and worked odd jobs to bring in added money. Matt’s first , at age 12, was to deliver Guinness stout to pubs. He began drinking the dregs of the returned bottles, and at the age of 13 was a full-blown alcoholic. Although he was known as a very hard worker, he also spent all his wages on alcohol. His friends later testified, “Matt only wanted one thing: the drink; he wouldn’t go with us to a dance or a party or a school function. But for the drink he’d do anything.”

By the time he was in his twenties, Matt had incurred large debts and resorted to thievery—even stealing the violin from a blind street entertainer and selling it to pay for rounds of drink at the bar.

However, at the age of 28, he realized that his life had become desperate and small and his relationships extremely shallow. He began to change; he took “The Pledge” for sobriety. Matt began quietly giving money to those around him to pay for shoes for their children or overdue rent. He often read the Bible and the lives of the and became a social activist and “a beacon of light to Irish workers.”

After a life of heroic perseverance, Matt died suddenly while walking to on June 7, 1925. Paul VI declared him Venerable in 1975. Matt is the patron of struggling and recovering addicts and alcoholics, and many addiction treatment programs, retreats, and centers throughout the world bear his name.