When I went to visit the grave of Ven Matthew Talbot in Dublin, the church was empty. As I walked over to his modest tomb, the property manager entered the church and jumped when he saw me. “Oh, you startled me,” he said. “Nobody ever comes here.”
I don’t remember how I first learned about this relatively unknown, humble and holy man, but Matt Talbot was the first saint I’d heard of who had been an addict. (He's not the only one; China's St Mark Ji Tianxiang also lived heroic struggle against addiction.) Matt Talbot came from a family of alcoholics. His own addiction began at age 12 via his job for a wine merchant, followed by other jobs for whiskey distributors. For the next sixteen years, he was the kind of alcoholic who traded his own shoes and stole from beggars to buy his next drink. Once, he stole a fiddle from a street performer and pawned it for liquor.
Finally, at age 28, amid the destruction of his life and relationships, Matt solemnly vowed sobriety. He clung to the grace of confession and the Eucharist to keep this vow. He never found easy eradication of his vulnerability to addiction: “It is as hard to give up drinking as it is to raise the dead back to life,” he said. But he found the only One who has such life-giving love, and in Him and with the sacraments, Matt Talbot found freedom.
"Nobody ever comes here" struck me as deeply ironic—so many of us do go there, into the depths of addiction or other compulsive disorders. Sometimes we can get the mistaken impression that healing looks like a mess that’s been straightened out, neatly boxed, and tucked away. Matt Talbot reminds us that sometimes healing remains messy and in progress in this life.
Most of his struggle remained hidden until he died suddenly on his way to Mass in 1925. Discovered under his clothes were chains and cords he had worn as reminders of the slavery of addiction, as penance, and as signs of devotion to Our Lady. Addiction is indeed a chain, but through grace, these chains may be transformed into bonds of sanctity.
You can visit the Shrine of Venerable Matthew Talbot inside Our Lady of Lourdes parish church in Dublin. His feast is June 19.
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