# Has there ever been an Abbot Costello? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 1, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-an-abbot-costello/548801 "2010-08-01T16:20:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-an-abbot-costello/548801/21 "2010-08-02T03:34:56Z")
The Costellos were a politically significant family in County Mayo from early in the thirteenth century through to the mid- seventeenth century. Particularly in the middle of that period, there were a large number of monastic foundations operating in Mayo. It’s more than likely that the Costello family endowed some of them, and it’s certainly not impossible that some members of the family entered the church and, with the benefit of family connections, progressed to positions of power. So there could well have been an more than one abbot from the Costello family. But I’m not aware of a specific example. Having said that, an abbot from the Costello family would not have been “Abbott Costello”. For one thing, in the culture of the time surnames were not much, and were never used without forenames, and were never coupled with titles. Thus a John Costello who became an abbot, if he were addressed by that title, would have been called Abbott John, not Abbot Costello. Though, in fact, he wouldn’t have been Abbot John either. “Abbot” wasn’t used as a title. John Costello might have been, e.g. the Abbot of Killala, but he would have been addressed as Father John. (Plus, of course, throughout this time May was Irish-speaking, not English-speaking. So our hypothetical John Costello would in fact have been Eoin Mac Coisdealbha, and would be so called in modern historiography. This could be why Google searches for “Costello” and “abbey” are not turning up any results.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-an-abbot-costello/548801/22 "2010-08-02T03:47:44Z")
OK, the original Irish spelling opens up a new line of inquiry, but a Google search for +abbot Coisdealbha -“Abbott and Costello” only returns a couple of pages of results, none of which seem relevant. > [@](#): > > ( a prior is “next in rank below an abbot”, according to [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com)) Yes, but it’s a pretty big step. A prior is basically just a monk who happens to take on some administrative duties, while an abbot has a great deal of autonomy and is nearly equivalent to a bishop. Still, this Fr. David Costello is probably the closest we’ve got so far. If one really wanted to pursue this, one might first dig up a list of Irish abbeys, and then try to find records of the abbots for each of them. But that’s a lot more work than I’m willing to go to, especially since those records won’t necessarily be online. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-an-abbot-costello/548801/23 "2010-08-02T04:43:26Z")
Given the large German population in Argentina, has there ever been a Gaucho Marx? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-an-abbot-costello/548801/24 "2010-08-02T04:56:26Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > Though, in fact, he wouldn’t have been Abbot John either. “Abbot” wasn’t used as a title. John Costello might have been, e.g. the Abbot of Killala, but he would have been addressed as Father John. On the Continent they used _abbé_. There is also a number of "archabbot"s, and even a “abbot primate” . (Nothing to do with apes, however)😛 ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-an-abbot-costello/548801/25 "2010-08-02T05:16:38Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > OK, the original Irish spelling opens up a new line of inquiry, but a Google search for > +abbot Coisdealbha -“Abbott and Costello” > only returns a couple of pages of results, none of which seem relevant. Well, to complicate matters still further, there are variants in the spelling of the name. As well as Mac Coisdealbha you’ll find Mac Coistealbha, Mac Coistealla and no doubt others. I don’t think Googling is going to answer this one. What you need is access to a good reference library which includes - in so far as we have them - lists of the heads of the various monastic foundations in or near County Mayo. And I don’t know to what extent we have them. Many of these houses were suppressed by force, and their contents dispersed or destroyed; there wasn’t exactly an orderly handover of records. We mostly know about churchmen if they get mentioned in secular histories, but monks generally don’t; the whole point of monasticism is that monks withdraw from the world. Even within the monastery, the culture was very much against any focus on individuals; there are very few memorials to or tombs of identifiable abbots, for instance. We have pretty compehensive records of Irish bishops from the twelfth century onwards (There was a Bishop of Clonfert named Costello in the late eighteenth century) but our knowledge of abbots is more patchy. ---
**Author:** ![Oglomott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oglomott/32/3543_2.png) [@Oglomott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oglomott)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-an-abbot-costello/548801/26 "2010-08-02T10:10:00Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Given the large German population in Argentina, has there ever been a Gaucho Marx? Then there was a Rodney Dangerfield movie where a school official was “Dean Martin”. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-an-abbot-costello/548801/27 "2010-08-02T11:56:34Z")
Some episode of a favorite TV show ed were titled: Corporal Punishment Major Star Private Plane General Hospital ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-an-abbot-costello/548801/28 "2010-08-02T15:44:18Z")
> [@](#): > > …and even a “abbot primate” . (Nothing to do with apes, however) On the contrary; I guarantee you that every one of those abbots was, in fact, an ape. (In seriousness, “primate” just means “first”, in the sense of “most important”. That’s the reason for the use in church titles, and the biological order is called that because it includes us, who are obviously the most important creatures on the planet.) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-an-abbot-costello/548801/29 "2010-08-02T16:03:30Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > Some episode of a favorite TV show ed were titled: > > Corporal Punishment > Major Star > Private Plane > General Hospital And don’t forget: [Major Payne - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Payne) ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-an-abbot-costello/548801/30 "2010-08-02T16:18:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Sounds like you’re really digging, Chronos. > > Not really; I just added “abbey” to the search terms, since I figured anything about a religious abbot would say what he was abbot of. You could probably get similar results with “monastery” or “monk”. “Drucker” is “printer” in German, right? So one probably could find a lot of Brother Printers at monasteries. Ironically, they probably produced about as many pages per minute as a modern Brother printer. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-an-abbot-costello/548801/31 "2010-08-02T16:19:51Z")
And let’s not forget [Cardinal Sin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Sin). (And he’s not even fictional.) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-an-abbot-costello/548801/32 "2010-08-02T16:52:50Z")
I found a Capuchin monk named (Father) [Timon Costello](http://www.appletoncots.org/mission.html). Maybe you just have to wait a bit. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-an-abbot-costello/548801/33 "2010-08-02T17:06:45Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Given the large German population in Argentina, has there ever been a Gaucho Marx? I am so stealing this. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-an-abbot-costello/548801/34 "2010-08-02T17:11:04Z")
Who’s on First? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-an-abbot-costello/548801/35 "2010-08-02T20:12:09Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Who’s on First? [Hu’s](http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/huch01.shtml) on first. [Watt’s](http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/wattal01.shtml) on second. I’m still looking for a ballplayer named Eidonow or I. Donau who can play third. ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-an-abbot-costello/548801/36 "2010-08-02T21:07:14Z")
A dozen or so years ago, Peter Costello and Greg Abbott played up front for Bradford City F.C. Not sure if either of them entered the church after their soccer careers were over though… As for Laurel & Hardy… > **[Laurel, Hardy jailed on drug charges](https://www.citizensvoice.com/news/laurel-hardy-jailed-on-drug-charges/article_2a99d825-0a1a-5f0a-b3a2-364e54c254ee.html)** > > Carlos Laurel, 31, and Andre "Sug" Hardy, 39, of Lincoln Street, face eight charges related to cocaine trafficking. Police arrested Laurel and Hardy after they showed up at a Kingston [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-an-abbot-costello/548801.md?page=1)