The Life of Saint Columba, Abbot, and Apostle of the Northern Picts by an anonymous writer is about the holy life of the apostle Saint Columba. Columba or Colmcille (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland at the start of the Hiberno-Scottish mission. He founded the important abbey on Iona, which became a dominant religious and political institution in the region for centuries.