The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-02-23
THE IMPORTANT WORK
OF A HIDDEN PRIEST
Labors of an Aged Irish Dominican
Among the Vatican Archives.

rom the Irish Dominican convent of
! San Clemenue. in Rome. comes word
| CT the death of d remarkable buf little
! known parsonage. Father Costelloe. at
the fine old age of 81 1t may be safely
SAID, writes the Rome correspondent of
me LONDON Catholic Weekly, that few
lnel of the century whose boundary we
have just crossed have done work more
valuable or of more lasting and i'm
poftant consequences. This will look
IKE thoughtleSS hyperbole to almost
every one who reads it. And nothing
more natural, because few have, ever
heard his name and those i'm Ireland
VINO knew him once have either nreced-
ed MN 10 the grave or have long since
loi sotten nim. In Rome he was not
known to many: the ordinary visitor
never met him. Yet he has been re-
markabie figure. He was well known
IN ire vatican library in the Lateran.
ne knew the Barbarini archives and
those OF Propa ganda as we'll as A man
KNOWS the contents of the drawers of
ms writing desk. He was attached ~
some conYents of his order in Ireland
during the first years of his priesthood
pul ne was transferred TO the irish
house of the order in Rome abo1t half ,
century ago, and has been attached to
II ever since In early life he suffered
from deafness. which practically irct,-
pdcltated MIN for mission work. Bit he
Was not the man to waste his life he
moaning his misfortune With bis
puoNant nature he thought within him
self that he had other faculties Iefr
winch ne could use. and he has used
them perseVeringly day by day for the
Id0I 1ItN years He has ransacked the
dIch'Nes and libraries in Rome. public
alc private, and has copied out almost
every nOpl,J11pnt
INnS OF the Irish church with the HoI,,
See down to the time of the Reforrra-
uoH. The labor and patience which
mat means cannot be realized unless
oN one who has ever tried to decipher
one of these medieval dOcun7ants
But use makes master Father CosteI-
zoe. with the patience of an Irish noonl,
OF old time and the plodding of a
ihCueFll German. WreStled with the
NNFk uiltll he got used to the charac-
Iells, and then those documents bera nc
to him as the latter of Yesterdays ,,ost
Hardly 4 day found him absent fro,,3
ms chair at one Of the archives or
libraries, deciphering. copying anG
verifying. and during the long soai,
ne mas Tllled up an enormous hean or
mar uscrlpt material for Irish history
ecclesiastical and civil. every ma oe
neatly ard carefully written. Thus b9
tilS GOOD man, with his silent and
life left a legacy to the Con
vent OF San Clemente and to his native
land that is beyond all price. Ireland
badly wants an ecclesiastical bistor,e
for 1t has rome. Curiously enough III :
only one worthy The name is by Cor
man-Canon Bellesheim. OF Aix-Ia-
Chapelle-compiled at the instance and
With the help of Cardinal Moran. Rur
that is in German, ard it. of course. has
some raWbacks. But il will he i'm
possible to produce complete histor,.
without the hitherto undiscovered |
M teriais which the painstaking priest |
who has just passed away has storo6
W for the sake of faith and f5tberl
hood