The faithful take part in a ‘Matt Talbot Walking Tour’ on February 2 led by Terry Fagan. Fr Hugh O’Donnell SDB
The title must appear an unlikely one given that Matt left school basically illiterate. His time in St Lawrence O’Toole’s Christian Brothers’ school, aged 8/9, is summed up in the phrase, “kept home through necessity”. His next enrolment at age 11 in O’Connell’s is no brighter as there in the margin of the roll book is Bro. Ryan’s enduring estimate of him as “a mitcher”.
It seems that he attended for three weeks in 1867 to prepare for Confession and Holy Communion and for a similar time the following year before his Confirmation. By May of that year, he was 12 years old. It was time to close his books.
For the next 16 years his only real interest in life was alcohol. There was never anything else on his mind. Later he would say to his neighbour, Mollie Breslin, “Ah, don’t be too hard on Harry. At least he won’t take off his boots and sell them for drink as I did when I was young”. That such a thirst for alcohol could have been replaced by an insatiable thirst for God is remarkable. The progress of that reversal would enlarge the next 40 years of his life.
Journey
On this journey the spiritual directors he met along the way were essential guides. In particular, Dr Michael Hickey, Professor of Philosophy and later president of Clonliffe College, who was his anam cara and personal friend for 30 years. He would regularly visit Matt in his flat where they would converse about spiritual (and secular) reading, (much of which he recommended); or sing and pray together.
Learning to read so late in life required a herculean effort but Matt was tenacious, inching forward step by step, finding help where he could. Afterwards, when asked about his ability to read the spiritual classics of St Francis de Sales, St Augustine or Cardinal Newman (now canonised), he explained that he prayed to the Holy Spirit to enable him to understand – and so was led forward into a deeper appreciation.
Matt always carried a book in his pocket so that even on his lunch break he could read or pray. He didn’t waste a moment”
Indeed, without his wide reading to inform the mystical path he undertook, Matt’s spiritual adventure would have largely been hidden from us. Little did he realise that he would leave behind him a treasure trove in the shape of his box of books, (now held in the diocesan archives). On the basis of these, his esteemed biographer, Mary Purcell, would be able to establish what books Matt was reading at different periods of his life and how that reading showed a growing maturity and confidence.
This facility to read in depth also allowed him to engage in deep spiritual conversation with Dr Hickey or with Ralph O’Callaghan who lent him many books; (he also borrowed from the libraries of his sodality in Gardiner Street and the Third Order library in Merchant’s Quay). Probably one of the most significant books Ralph put in his way was True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin by St Louis de Montford. Here Matt first learnt about wearing a chain as a sign of handing over his life to Jesus through Mary.
Matt always carried a book in his pocket so that even on his lunch break he could read or pray. He didn’t waste a moment. The gospels were a big part of his reading especially the four accounts of the Lord’s passion, many verses of which he had underlined. In the Old Testament, too, he had marked passages for reference in the book of Wisdom and the Psalms.
Fascinated
Although he was fascinated by the lives of the saints, the women mystics were particular favourites of his, especially St Catherine of Siena, St Teresa of Avila (both declared Doctors of the Church in 1970!), whom he once referred to, in his homely but not demeaning way, as ‘grand girls’ or ‘great girls’. He was very taken by Catherine’s vision in which God the Father addresses her as, “my own daughter, Catherine”; he, too, desired that closeness.
It cost him most of a week’s wages to acquire it from the publishers. It’s an eye opener to see how a man so frugal in his lifestyle could value books and purchase them if necessary”
During the Great Strike and Lockout of 1913, he was often consulted by the other men for an educated answer on the rights of workers and the rights of employers. On one occasion, Matt said that he didn’t know the answer to the question posed, but knew where to get it. Some months later he appeared at lunchtime with a book called, Democratic Industry by Fr Husslein, SJ. Somehow, he knew of this book but found it was only available in the US. It cost him most of a week’s wages to acquire it from the publishers. It’s an eye opener to see how a man so frugal in his lifestyle could value books and purchase them if necessary.
Fluent
His writing may not have been as fluent, but good enough for him to write down on pieces of paper particular sentences from his reading that spoke to him. Inserted in his books, they open up a view on his inner world. Like this one, “Blessed Mother obtain for me a share of your Son’s folly”; or “I long for you to be Master of my heart, Loving Jesus”. For a man intent on keeping his way of life hidden, it’s providential that in his box of books and these writings he would reveal so much to us.
Indeed, that Matt, leaving school semi-literate, should go on to read and understand in such depth the lives of some of the greatest Christian saints, reveals his lifelong desire to follow where they led. As he records in his own hand, “in prayer one speaks to God, in spiritual reading God speaks to us”.
Salesian priest Fr Hugh O’Donnell SDB is a curate in the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes, Sean McDermott Street, in Dublin’s inner city.