Wooden Statue of Venerable Matt Talbot

Matt Talbot and Saint Maximilian Kolbe, O.F.M. are the patrons of the Recovery Ministry on Enders Island, Mystic, Connecticut (USA).

(http://www.endersisland.com/recovery-patrons)

Matt’s statue is located in the Enders Island Chapel of Our Lady of the Assumption. Click on the Chapel's interior photos.
 http://www.endersisland.com/photos?eventid=124%2F10977a0b-774a-9f5f-95a3-09e23447e33a

 

Pope Francis Prays in St. Maximilian Kolbe's Cell at Auschwitz

Pope Francis is currently in Krakow, Poland, the city of St. John Paul II, for World Youth Day 2016.

Earlier today, he visited the the Nazi concentration camp known as Auschwitz-Birkenau and walked into Auschwitz's Block 11, where St. Maximilian Kolbe spent his last days before being put to death by lethal injection in the starvation cell on the ground floor. Fr. Kolbe was a Franciscan friar who volunteered to die instead of another man when he heard him desperately cry that he was leaving a wife and children behind.

As seen in the photo Pope Francis sat in silent prayer and reflection in the cell http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2016/07/29/pope_francis_visits_auschwitz-birkenau_museum_and_memorial/1247696

St. Maximilian Kolbe is the patron saint of drug addicts.
                                          


               

                          

This Drug Addict is a Martyred Saint

[Martyred St. Maximilian Kolbe is typically listed as the patron for drug addicts on multiple Catholic saint websites, not because he was an addict but because he was given a lethal injection of carbolic acid in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. The Chinese martyred layman saint briefly described in this article was an opium addict.]

This Addict is a Saint

by Jim Manney

The Blog of Ignatian Spirituality

September 22, 2011

http://ignatianspirituality.com/10830/this-addict-is-a-saint/

A friend of mine recently sent me a unusual holy card. It honors St. Mark Ji Tianxiang, a Chinese layman who was murdered in 1900, along with dozens of other Catholics in his village, in the vicious persecution of Christians during the Boxer rebellion. That’s not the unusual thing. The Church has canonized many martyrs, including many Chinese martyrs. What’s unusual about St. Mark is that he was an opium addict who was barred from receiving the sacraments for the last 30 years of his life
.

Mark couldn’t receive communion because his addiction was regarded as gravely sinful and scandalous. He prayed for deliverance from his addiction, but deliverance never came. Nevertheless he remained a believing Catholic. At his trial he was given a chance to renounce his faith, but he refused. It is said that he sang the litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary as he was led to his execution.

Saints are exemplary people. The Church creates them so we can learn from them. So what can we learn from St. Mark Ji Tianxiang?

For starters, he shows that anybody can become a saint—even a man who was kicked out of the church for giving public scandal. By canonizing him, the Church also signals a different attitude toward addiction than the one St. Mark’s pastors had a century ago. Drug abuse is sinful, but addiction is also a disease of the mind and body. Addicts today are not excluded from the sacraments because they are addicts.

I also marvel at St. Mark’s confidence in the mercy of God. He probably shared the village’s opinion of him—that he was serious sinner who was behaving terribly. He must have felt despair in his futile struggles and perhaps some bitterness too. But he persevered in his faith. I suspect that in his brokenness he met the suffering Christ. In the end, he went to his death confidently, trusting that love would receive him. 
May we all imitate St. Mark.

Matt Talbot, Patron of Labourers

While there are many recognized saints who are listed with multiple and diverse patronages, like St. Monica and St. Joseph, there are some who are known principally for one or two patronages, such as St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe among addicts and prisoners. (While not a drug addict himself, St. Kolbe was killed by Nazis with an injection of carbolic acid in the extermination camp of Auschwitz in 1941.)

Although (yet to be canonized) Venerable Matt Talbot is widely regarded solely as patron for alcoholics, he certainly qualifies as being considered a patron for labourers (laborers/workers), as those in the USA celebrate Labor Day today. Matt did manual labor his entire life, beginning at the age of 12.

St. Maximilian Kolbe and Venerable Matt Talbot: Direct Experience Counts

People select one or more patron saints for a variety of reasons. This writer selected Matt Talbot because, for her, "direct experience counts." St. Maximilian is frequently mentioned as the patron saint of addicts, not because he was an addict but probably because when he did not die quickly enough from starvation, he was given a lethal injection of carbolic acid in the concentration camp at Auschwitz during World War II. (JB)

by The Prodigal Catholic

December 20, 2008

"...I'm really looking forward to praying the Venerable Matt Talbot Chaplet. I know St. Maximilian Kolbe is considered the Patron Saint of Addicts, but as far as I know he never dealt with addiction. The Venerable Matt Talbot did. And for this recovering Catholic, that makes all the difference for someone like myself who has struggled with addiction. For me if it changes the way I feel, it's a drug. And that includes alcohol. I sincerely hope that the Venerable Matt Talbot will not only be canonized as the Patron Saint of alcoholics, but also of addicts. He is truly an inspiration to me as someone who used his Catholic Faith as a mighty tool in his recovery from his addiction to alcohol."

Source: http://theprodigalcatholic.blogspot.com/2008/12/st-maximilian-kolbe-and-venerable-matt.html