Acoarb, from theOld Irishcomarbae (Modern Irish:comharba,Latin:hērēs[1]), meaning "heir" or "successor",[2] was a distinctive office of the medievalCeltic Church among theGaels 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 extensivetermon 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".
In medieval Ireland and Scotland, the coarb ofSt Columba (Medieval Gaeliccomarba Coluim Chille) identified the abbots who succeeded Columba. When the monks fled to their monastery in Kells, following the 9th-century Viking raids on Iona, their abbot continued to hold the title of coarb to reflect his direct inheritance: many of the early abbots were members of Columba's family.
The abbot of thecollegiate church (i.e.,monastery following the Rule of St Columba), who heldholy orders and celebratedMass ('serveth the cure'), was responsible for his monastic community. In time, the pattern of a Bishop and an Abbot of Iona was established, which after theReformation and theDissolution of the Monasteries fell into disuse.
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