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Nothing ever happened to Matt Talbot, an ordinary Irish laborer of no great learning, no riches, no remarkable accomplishments. He lived in poverty and died, alone and unrecognized on a cold cobblestone lane, in Dublin. He left no family, no followers, no written discourses.
Scarcely anyone knew a thing about him. Yet within six months of his death, a brief biography sold 120,000 copies. Within a year, it had been published in twelve languages. Five years after that, the Catholic Church began investigating Matt Talbot’s life to determine if he warranted consideration for sainthood. A short fifty years after his death, the Church bestowed on him the title, “Venerable,” finding him fit to be commended as a “hero” whose virtues are worthy to be imitated.
No, nothing ever happened to Matt Talbot, but as one biographer noted, “he happened to those about him, as light happens to a dark room.”
“… The Grace of God …” Darkness abounded during Matt’s lifetime. Ireland’s great famine of the 1840s had driven many countryfolk into the city, seeking food and employment. England had…
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