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"
- ^ 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.