BID FOR NEW IRISH SAINT

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Jun 27, 2004 | by Michelle O'Keeffe

THE Church has launched a fresh bid to find a miracle that could see Irish holy man Matt Talbot crowned a saint.

Catholic clerics are furiously searching for anyone who has been cured by the Dubliner.

From pulpits around the country they appealed for people who were cured from addiction through prayers to Matt Talbot to come forward.

The Pope wants to beatify the reformed alcoholic but the Vatican's committee cannot sanction this until it is proved he performed a physical miracle.

A spokesman for the Dublin Diocesan Matt Talbot Association said: "Last Sunday was dedicated to the memory of Matt Talbot.

"We are looking for people who have been cured from illness or addiction through devotion to him.

"Priests want people who have been cured through prayers to Matt Talbot to let them know

"To get him canonised a miracle is needed."

Matt Talbot was born in the tenements of inner-city Dublin in 1856.

He was addicted to alcohol by the age of 13 and continued his chronic abuse for 16 years.

But he beat booze and found religion with the help of a priest and a 12-step plan to sobriety.

For the next 40 years he slept on floorboards without a mattress using a log as a pillow.

He prayed on his knees for hours each day and walked the streets wrapped in chains.

His body, still wrapped around it, was found in a Dublin street in 1925.

Immediately demands began to have him made a saint, but it wasn't until 1948 that an official Church was launched.