Matthew was born on May 2, 1856, in Dublin, Ireland, as the 2nd eldest of 12 to Charles and Elizabeth Talbot, a poor family in the North Strand area.

His father, and all but the oldest of his brothers were heavy drinkers.

His father worked the docks and had a difficult time supporting the family after Ireland’s Great Famine. Matt then left school at the age of 12 to work in a wine merchant store.  He began to sample their products and was soon an alcoholic by the age of 13.  He then worked as a messenger for whiskey stores and frequented pubs, spending most of his wages.  When money ran out, he stole and sold his clothes for money for alcohol and bounced around different jobs as a laborer and bricklayer.

This continued until he turned 28.  He had no money, friends would not buy him a drink, and he was refused credit.

He had waited outside a pub for quite some time, watching friends and acquaintances pass him by without offering a drink.  In disgust, he headed home and announced he would “take the pledge” to renounce alcohol.  He went to the Holy Cross College, took the pledge for 3 months, then 6, and finally for life.  Amid the difficulties of withdrawal, he found strength in prayer, began to attend daily Mass, and read religious writings.  He repaid all of his debts and scoured the area for the fiddler whose instrument he had stolen some time earlier.  Having failed, he gave the money to the church to have a Mass said for him.

He became one of the 1st members of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association of the Sacred Heart after it was founded and prayer became like breathing for him. 

He became a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis and attended daily mass before work at 6 a.m.  He took on many personal penances in the ascetic traditions of the early Irish monks and many were astonished at his work level even with the small amount of food he consumed.  He took on the meanest and hardest jobs, was respectful, and stood up for fellow workers.  When the Union went on strike, he took his strike pay and shared it among the other strikers as he felt he hadn’t earned it.

He collapsed on a Dublin street on his way to Mass for Trinity Sunday and was taken to a hospital where he died on June 7, 1925.  It was only then that the extent of some of his penances became known.

For God’s Glory.