LINCOLN (SNR) - Don Costello, the husband of recently-deceased columnist Mary Costello, is seeking prayers to be placed at the tomb of Venerable Matt Talbot in Ireland.
“Most of you readers know about the commitment that my wife, Mary Costello had to assist those suffering from addiction to seek help from Venerable Matt Talbot,” Don explained.
At Mary’s July 9 funeral, the family collected 40 slips of paper that asked Matt for his intercession for an individual needing help for illness, addiction, mental distress and similar afflictions.
“We will be sending those requests to Father Brian Lawless, the vice postulator of the cause of canonization of Venerable Matt,” Don explained. Father Lawless will place those requests at Talbot’s tomb.
Don invited Southern Nebraska Register readers who wished to send their own prayer requests to mail them to Don Costello, 3901 S. 27th St., Unit 4, Lincoln, NE 68506, with the request sealed with Scotch tape, and he will send them on to Dublin.
In honor of this event, the Register shares one of the many columns Mary wrote on Venerable Matt Talbot before her retirement. This item appeared in her “Over the Coffee Cup” column Nov. 14, 2014:
Suzanne Blue, executive director of Matt Talbot Kitchen and Outreach, (MTKO, which will always hold a very special place in my heart, right up there with my children and grandchildren) has asked me to speak Nov. 20, and while I don’t really like to do that sort of thing anymore, how could I say no? 
The occasion for the talk is that people really want to hear the details about the miracle that is attributed to Matt’s intercession that happened in Overland Park, Kan. Also, many volunteers, and certainly people who are clients of MTKO don’t know who Matt Talbot is, and certainly don’t know his beautiful life story. And I love to tell it.
The funny thing is many people think the kitchen was named for a relative of mine, or that Matt was the benefactor, or that he’s the manager. We used to get phone calls all the time asking, “Is Matt there?” Well, no. Not really.
Maybe I’m going to ruin my talk for some by telling the story now, but I’m sure there are lots of people out there who won’t be able to come Thursday night so here goes:
Matt Talbot was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1856 to a very poor working-class family, one of 11 children; eight survived to adulthood. There is some discussion about this fact, but I believe that Matt’s father was an alcoholic; all the boys, except John the eldest, became alcoholics while they were still teenagers. In fact, Matt admits starting drinking as soon as he started working, which was at the age of 12.
Young Irish children did not get much education at that time; Matt quit school as soon as he was Confirmed; he could barely read and write. He had a series of laboring jobs, many of them in the bottling industry, which was huge in Dublin.
Matt drank heavily until he was 28, often hocking his shoes, his coat, any personal belongings he could get his hands on, to buy booze. He lived with his parents and never had a shilling to contribute to his mother for room and board. At that time it was the custom for dock workers to be paid through the local pubs every Saturday noon. Matt’s paycheck was gone by Tuesday night and after that he either drank on the goodness of his friends or on the goodness of the barkeep.
But one week in the spring of 1884, Matt had been ill, which was unusual for this small but strong, wiry man. He had no paycheck to pick up, and no one invited him into the pub to have a drink on them. He waited outside for a friend or neighbor to invite him in and no one did.
Finally, Matt walked over to a nearby bridge, one overlooking the Royal Canal. We have no idea what the Holy Spirit said to him, but it was a message of love and hope and trust: “If you put your hand in mine, I will take care of you.” I know a little about this sort of thing because that’s what the Holy Spirit always says to us alcoholics and addicts when we finally say, “I give up!”
From that moment on, Matt Talbot lived the life of a saint. He went to daily Mass, knelt for countless hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Instead of spending his free time in pubs, he spent them in churches. He joined numerous sodalities, and supported his mother until she died. Then he began giving away most of his paycheck, either loaning it to neighbors and friends in need (he felt loaning it was more responsible than giving it to them – not “enabling”!) or sending it to the missions.
Matt died on Trinity Sunday 1923, on his way to his third Mass of the day. He was buried in a pauper’s grave in Glasnevin, a cemetery in Dublin. By then his neighbors and friends knew they had lost a very holy man. They began to pray to him for favors, particularly in regards to alcoholics, bringing their petitions to his gravesite in tiny little jam jars to protect them from the rain and wind of the bitter Dublin winters. And the changes began to happen… and the word spread throughout Ireland and soon throughout the world.
After a thorough investigation into his life, Matt was declared Venerable by the Church in 1975.
Until last August there had been thousands of reported conversions from alcoholism and addictions due to prayers to Matt Talbot, and there also had been several physical miracles reported through prayers to Matt Talbot but none had ever stood the rigorous tests put to them by the powers that be in Rome.
Now we have one that seems to be strong enough to stand those tests.
In the summer of 2013, a young couple from Overland Park, Kan. was expecting their sixth child. It was to be a boy, they both were Irish, so they were searching for a good Irish name. They came to Lincoln for the baptism of a relative’s baby and heard about Matt Talbot Kitchen and Outreach and decided to name their new baby “Talbot”!
A few weeks later, baby Talbot was overdue so the obstetrician ordered another ultrasound. That procedure showed significant problems: relatives and friends of the couple gathered ‘round and began continual prayers to Matt for a healthy baby. Talbot was induced in only a few days; the delivery was “the easiest one I ever had,” Mom reported and after numerous tests, the baby was pronounced perfect. The obstetrician was the first to say the words: “This is a miracle!”
The story is now making its way through the channels in Rome and we are praying it will be accepted as the miracle that will raise Matt to the level of “Blessed.” We will then need one more miracle to go from there, one day, to “Saint.”
