Matt Talbot UPDATE!

The Cause for Matt's Canonization Has Momentum!

Next month it will be two years (March 2024) since Bill Rose of Joyful Films reached out to Fr. Douglas McKay with the idea to do a short documentary on the life of Venerable Matt Talbot. What started out as an idea in Bill’s mind has blossomed into a worldwide renewal of energy for the canonization of Matt Talbot.

It was not just the film. Plans were already underway in Ireland for a celebration of the centenary of Matt’s death to take place in June of 2025. The work on celebration combined with the work and completion of the film has rejuvenated Matt’s cause and we plan to keep the fire lit! That centenary celebration also put pressure on Bill to complete the film in time for it to be shown in Ireland.

So where are we in February 2025? My good friend Michael Murphy has been traveling throughout Ireland and Scotland giving presentations on Matt Talbot and showing “Matt Talbot:Urban Mystic” at various locations. Last week he was in Navan and on Monday 2/23 he will be in Derry at the Brunswick Movie Bowl. He, with a great deal of help of the Knights of Columbanus (not Columbus, that’s in the US!), have been promoting Matt’s cause and the film after a great deal of effort was put into the planning and execution of the centenary weekend in Dublin in June 2025.

Meanwhile, here is the US we have had a number of showings of the film and are having conversations with folks that have the ability to get the film into over 1,000 theaters here in the US!

We never dreamed that the film would have this kind of reception and impact! Throughout the making of the film we saw God’s hand in just about everything we did. Whether it was the sun shining through a window at just the right moment, a bartender in a pub giving us permission to film without any advanced warning or a mustached Matt Hayes showing up at just the right moment to play the role of Matt Talbot. These were just a few of the hundreds of “odd or God” moments during the film project.

As mentioned, people are on fire for Matt’s cause now as a result of the events for the centenary and the film! An international committee is being formed to promote his cause so that we are all working together using similar materials and messaging to promote Matt’s cause.

To that end, I enlisted the help of my friend Rebecca Giles to create a new image of Matt Talbot that we can use for relic cards, pamphlets and other resources to promote Matt’s cause. We loved an image from the film but were afraid that if we used the actual picture people might think it was really Matt Talbot. We are only aware of one actual photo of Matt and it was taken towards the end of his life.

When making the film we were trying to emphasize the fact that Matt sobered up at the young age of 28 and stayed sober for 40 years without the help of a 12-step program. That’s why we portray Matt as a young man in the film and why we wanted a more youthful image of Matt to use for publications. I reached out to Rebecca Giles who had done a couple of pieces for me already including “The Last Breath”:

And “Slam the Door”:

Rebecca was up for job of creating the new image of Matt and we were ecstatic to see the final work:

Rebecca is an incredible artist and has a wonderful story that needs to be share d and I hope to do so in the near future! In the meantime, here she is holding her latest work:

As the new materials become available I will list them on my website, www.notsaintsyet.org. I expect to have the new relic cards and a pamphlet the week of 2/23.

If you have not signed up already, please go to MattTalbotFilm.com and get on our mailing list. We will keep you updated on all that is going on with the film. We are looking to have another screening of the film at the theater in Oaks, PA in March, possibly 3/19.

We are also expecting news out of Ireland surrounding Matt’s cause including a new postulator in Rome and the establishment of the international committee to spearhead the cause for Matt’s canonization.

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