Sous-série 27 - Papers relating to Matt Talbot

30 items; manuscript, clipping, printed, and photographic print

The subseries comprises material assembled by Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. for the 1937 edition of ‘The Capuchin Annual’ which included several articles exploring the life of the pietist Matt Talbot.

Talbot was born into a large working-class family in the North Strand area of Dublin in 1856. He left school at the age of twelve and subsequently worked as a labourer at the Port and Docks Board. From an early age, Talbot was an alcoholic. He frequented pubs in the city with his brothers and friends, spending most of his income on alcohol and running up considerable debts.

In about 1884, Talbot ‘took the pledge’ and renounced the consumption of liquor. He maintained sobriety for the following forty years of his life. He also began to attend daily Mass and assiduously read religious books and pamphlets. He collapsed and died of heart failure on 7 June 1925, whilst on his way to attend a religious service. His body was taken to Jervis Street Hospital, where the full the extent of his ascetic lifestyle was revealed. Attendants discovered a metal link chain wound around his torso, and lighter chains and knotted cords on the arms and below the knees. The latter likely caused discomfort when kneeling.

Talbot’s funeral took place in Glasnevin Cemetery on 11 June 1925. As word of his piety spread, Talbot became an icon for the temperance movement in Ireland and for the large Irish expatriate communities in Britain and in the United States. This rapidly developed into a substantial devotional movement, promoted by the clergy and by lay activists, with Talbot held up as a possible candidate for canonisation as a Catholic saint. In October 1975 Pope Paul VI declared him to be the Venerable Matt Talbot, an important step to canonisation.

Talbot’s remains were removed from Glasnevin Cemetery to Our Lady of Lourdes Church on Seán McDermott Street in 1972. The church has since become a site of pilgrimage. The Talbot Memorial Bridge, completed in 1978, was named in commemoration of the former dock worker. A statue of Talbot was also erected at the southern end of the bridge.

For biographical information on Matt Talbot (1856-1925) see https://www.dib.ie/biography/talbot-matt-a8451

For the published content on Matt Talbot in ‘The Capuchin Annual’ (1937) see https://designrr.page/?id=315561&token=3984641607&type=FP&h=7572