Matt Talbot

I wear a Matt Talbot pendant and a cross on a chain around my neck. Matt Talbot is the closest thing to the Patron Saint of Alcoholics. He was an Irishman working man who lived in the early 1800’s in Dublin. He started drinking at age 12, but took a pledge to stop when he was 21. He spent his days in prayer and at Mass. Despite being uneducated he wrote deep spiritual insights. Bishops would come to him and ask him to pray. Most of all (to me) he wrote that we should pity the alcoholic because he has no power to help himself. The only thing that can help him is God. That is why I wear the chain as a reminder of that profound truth.