A note on Blessed Columba Marmion and Venerable Matt Talbot

[We have previously noted articles that mention Blessed Columba Marmion (1858-1923) and Venerable Matt Talbot (1856-1925). In the excerpt below from an article written on the 89th anniversary of the death of Blessed Marmion, Matt Talbot, among other sons and daughters of Catholic Ireland, is mentioned.]

A Son of Ireland for the Whole Church

By Dom Mark Daniel Kirby, OSB

January 30, 2012

http://vultus.stblogs.org/2012/01/abbot-marmion-irelands-gift-to.html

“...Blessed Columba Marmion may very well be the greatest gift in modern times of the Church in Ireland to the Church universal. Catholic Ireland needs the affirmation, the consolation, the joy, and the holy pride that will come from the beatification and canonization of those sons and daughters of hers who illumined modern times with the radiance of the Face of Christ shining through them. I could mention, among others, Father Willie Doyle, Frank Duff, Edel Quinn, Matt Talbot, Father John Sullivan, and Little Nellie Organ but, of all of these, Blessed Columba Marmion is the one whose Christ-centred life and teaching, like a lamp on a lampstand, shone most brightly in the Church of the 20th century, and in souls....”

Pope John XXIII referred to Matt Talbot in a letter

In a letter sent by Pope John XXIII (IOANNES XXIII PP.) to the Most Rev. John Charles McQuaid, Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland, on the occasion of the Centenary of Holy Cross College, Clonliffe (then the Major Seminary of the Archdiocese of Dublin), he mentions Abbot Columba Marmion and Matt Talbot in the following excerpt:

“In this survey of the history of your Seminary, short though it may be, We cannot fail to mention the names of two personages whose virtues are renowned throughout the world: Abbot Columba Marmion, who was first a student and later a Professor in the College; and Matthew Talbot, who strove earnestly after great sanctity when he had been rescued from vice through the influence of one of the Professors of the College.”

The entire letter can be found at http://lxoa.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/pope-john-xxiii-on-holy-cross-college-clonliffe/

On September 3, 2000 Pope John XXIII was declared “Blessed” by Pope John Paul II, who himself was declared “Blessed” in 2011.

For two references see http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Sep2000/feature1.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_XXIII

Blessed Columba Marmion (1858-1923), beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 3, 2000, was one of the most popular and influential Catholic writers of the 20th century. Matt Talbot (1856-1925) was declared “Venerable” by Pope Paul VI on October 3, 1976.

For three references to Bl. Columba Marmion, see http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2006,/czehnder_bmarmion_sept06.asp,http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20000903_columba-marmion_en.html, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columba_Marmion

Matt Talbot and the Gardiner Street Parish

The following article appeared at  http://www.jesuit.ie/where-we-work/pioneer-total-abstinence-association

"The Church of St Francis Xavier in Gardiner Street was one of the first churches to be built in Dublin after Catholic Emancipation (Catholic Relief Act) in 1829. The church in Hardwicke St opened in 1821. By 1829, however, it had become too small for the congregations. In that year, then, the first stone was laid, and the first Mass was said in the new parish church on May 3, 1832. The Jesuits had been in the Hardwicke St area since the 1730s, on the site now occupied by the Sacred Heart statue. They opened a school there, and in 1841 this became Belvedere College. Many well-known people of faith have been associated with the church. Among them is [Venerable] Matt Talbot, a recovered alcoholic whose cause for beatification is in process. He prayed in the church each day at the 5.30 a.m. Mass, and in fact died on his way to a later Mass in Dominic St Church in Granby Lane, on June 7, 1925. John Henry Cardinal Newman celebrated Mass here when he lived in Dorset St in 1854; his cause for beatification is in process too. [John Henry Newman was declared "Blessed" in September, 2010.] Also, it can be surmised that Blessed Dom Columba Marmion visited the church when he was Professor at Clonliffe College. Gardiner Street Church is also the resting place of Fr John Sullivan SJ whose cause for canonisation is in process in Rome. His tomb draws a daily stream of devotees, as does the monthly Mass in his memory. Fr John worked for a short time in the church in 1907..." This is also the church where "The Pioneer Total Abstinence Association of the Sacred Heart" was founded on 28th December, 1898, by Fr. James A. Cullen; Matt Talbot was a member of the PTAA.

All the Saints of Ireland

Pope Benedict XV beatified Oliver Plunkett in 1920 and during his papacy also (1914-22) the Feast of All the Saints of Ireland was instituted.

Only four canonised saints
Only four saints, St Malachy (1094-1148), St Lawrence O'Toole (1128-80) and St Oliver Plunkett (1625-81) and St Charles of Mount Argus (1821-93), have been officially canonised. All the other Irish saints, such as Saints Patrick, Brigid, and Colmcille, are saints, as it were, by acclamation of the local Church.

Canonisation
"Canonisation" as a process can be said to have begun when the name of a martyr was included in the dyptichs (or prayer lists) proclaimed by the deacon during Mass. This process would have been overseen by the local Church authority, especially the bishop. Later the names of holy people who were not martyrs, such as Saint Hilarion and Saint Ephrem the Syrian in the East, and Saint Martin of Tours and Saint Hilary of Poitiers in the West, were included. But it was only in 1170 that Alexander III issued a decree arrogating to the Pope alone the right to declare a person a saint as regards the Church of the West. This was confirmed in 1200 by a bull of Pope Innocent III.

The scope of the feast
The scope of this feast, while it includes canonised saints, is wider. It also includes those who had a reputation for holiness and whose causes for canonisation have not yet been completed, such as Blessed Thaddeus MacCarthy (1455-92), the seventeen Irish martyrs of the 16th and 17th centuries, Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice (1762-1844), Blessed Columba Marmion (1858-1923) and the Servant of God [now Venerable] Matt Talbot (1856-1925) and people like Legion of Mary envoys Edel Quinn and Alfie Lamb, whose causes have already been introduced. But it also includes those whose lives of sanctity were known only to their families, friends or members of their parish diocese or religious community.

An exchange of spiritual goods
Like All Saints (1 Nov) and All Souls (2 Nov), this is a celebration of the communio sanctorum, that is, a sharing, not only of the "holy persons" (sancti and sanctae), but also of the "holy things" (sancta). As the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium on the Church of Vatican II taught:

"So it is that the union of the wayfarers with the brethern who sleep in the peace of Christ is in no way interrupted, but on the contrary, according to the constant faith of the Church, this union is reinforced by an exchange of spiritual goods" (LG 49).

Island of Saints and Scholars
The reading from the Book of Ecclesiasticus 44:1-15 echoes the theme of "the island of saints and scholars" which was so strong in Ireland in the first half of the twentieth century.

Let us praise illustrious men,
our ancestors in their successive generations.
The Lord has created an abundance of glory,
and displayed his greatness from earliest times.

Source: http://www.catholicireland.net/pages/index.php?art=1887

Note: For a listing of and information about Irish saints, click http://www.catholic.org/saints/irish.php