Whereas Venerable Matt Talbot (1856-1925) may be known most
frequently as the patron saint of alcoholics, he is also considered as the
Workers’ Saint.
A search of our site and elsewhere online notes “worker” or
“labourer” in the title of articles and books about Matt. For example, the title of an article at http://www.catholicireland.net/saintoftheday/matt-talbot-the-workers-saint/ is "Venerable Matt Talbot - The Workers' Saint" and the first sentence states: “Matt Talbot was a Dubliner who struggled with a drink problem,
then led a severe ascetical life, and became known after his death as the
Workers' Saint.”
In an article about St. Joseph the Worker at
http://www.motherofallpeoples.com/2010/04/st-joseph-the-worker/, that included such headings as
The Gospel of Work and
Your Workplace is Holy
Ground, Matt and others are
mentioned as examples:
“...One thinks here of Ven. Matt Talbot, the
Dublin workman who spent a lifetime as a laborer on building-sites; he would
offer his daily work, in union with St. Joseph, to the Divine Workman, of whom
he once remarked in his laconic way, “Christ the Carpenter must have a close
interest in those who work.”
One also thinks here of Bl. Charles
de Foucauld; wishing to share St. Joseph’s lowly status as a manual worker, he
prevailed upon the Poor Clares, during his sojourn in Nazareth, to allot him the
task of sweeping their convent floors.
Examples abound of Christian zeal
in offering to God work of every kind in the spirit of penance and prayer. St.
Benedict was imbued with this principle, as is seen in his famous motto: “To
work is to pray.” Similarly St. Bernadette; on becoming an invalid she famously
declared that this was the newfound employment she could and would offer to
God.
Gerard Manley Hopkins had a sharp
insight into how the humblest tasks, howsoever low-grade they may be socially
and economically, can glorify God and sanctify the
worker.”