As we recently posted on March 4, 2019 (http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/search/label/Blessed%20John%20Henry%20Newman) Matt Talbot was basically illiterate when he
signed a pledge not to drink, confessed his sins to a priest, and turned his
life over to the care of God at the age of 28. He laboriously began to read over the years and would frequently ask his
spiritual advisor and the Lord about certain words and what certain passages
meant.
Over the years he read his Bible, the lives of saints, and books by saints. One day, in the timber yard during lunch break Daniel Manning, a fellow worker, saw Matt reading Apologia Pro Vita Sua by John Henry Newman and said to Matt that he tried to read it but it was very difficult to understand. Matt simply answered that when he got a book like that he always prayed to Our Blessed Lady and she always inspired him to take the correct meaning from the words. See page 101 at
Over the years he read his Bible, the lives of saints, and books by saints. One day, in the timber yard during lunch break Daniel Manning, a fellow worker, saw Matt reading Apologia Pro Vita Sua by John Henry Newman and said to Matt that he tried to read it but it was very difficult to understand. Matt simply answered that when he got a book like that he always prayed to Our Blessed Lady and she always inspired him to take the correct meaning from the words. See page 101 at
It is interesting a book was published in 1945 and 1946 by different publishers with the same content but with different titles: Saints for the Times and John Henry Newman, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Thomas More, Matt Talbot by Reverend Thomas J. McCarthy,Ph.D. at https://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/2016/07/matt-talbot-common-man_19.html
Hopefully the day will come when Venerable Matt Talbot will be proclaimed
a saint.