A coarb, from the Old Irish comarbae (Modern Irish: comharba, Latin: hērēs[1]), meaning "heir" or "successor",[2] was a distinctive office of the medieval Celtic Church among the Gaels of Ireland and Scotland. In this period coarb appears interchangeable with "erenach", denoting the episcopally nominated lay guardian of a parish church and headman of the family in hereditary occupation of church lands. The coarb, however, often had charge of a church which had held comparatively high rank in pre‐Norman Ireland, or one still possessed of relatively extensive termon lands.[3]
Also as per this article "... such lucrative monastic offices as “coarb” (comarbae “heir” to a saint) or “erenach” (airchinnech “superior”), otherwise transmitted by natural or nepotic descent within ecclesiastical families, which were often the politically displaced branches of royal dynasties"
The current chief of Clan Livingstone in Scotland was recognised by Lord Lyon as the "Coarb of Saint Moluag" and the "Hereditable Keeper of the Great Staff of Saint Moluag".
- ^ Duffy, Seán (15 January 2005). Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. ISBN 9781135948245 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Coarb". Clan Livingstone Society. 2 September 2004. Archived from the original on 5 October 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2005.
- ^ Etchingham, Colmán (2011). Connolly, Sean J. (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Irish History (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 107. ISBN 9780198662709. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011.