Abstract
The 'Life of St Columba' offers an account of events in the life of the sixth-century saint who founded an influential monastic community with strong connections to the peoples of Ireland and Scotland. The text’s relationship to the categories of ‘Celtic Christianity’ and ‘Celtic spirituality’ is critically examined. It is deemed justifiable to locate the Life within these categories because it manifests features of other religious texts produced by Celtic peoples in the early Middle Ages. Whether it can be legitimately accommodated within popular versions of Celtic spirituality/ Christianity depends on whether the assessment is conducted from academic or spiritual practice perspectives.