[1][2][3] An anecdote is told that Cruithnechán once saw a ball of fire hanging over Columba's head, while the boy was sound asleep.
[1] The miracle has been explained as representing a "typical motif used to show how teachers or parents were made aware of the precocious sanctity of their charges".
The otherwise "austere" Middle Irish version of Columba's Life, which has been dated to the 12th century,[8] identifies Cruithnechán as a son of one Cellachán, and says that he baptized the boy before he took him into fosterage.
[9][10] The story of Columba's upbringing had undergone further expansion by 1532 when County Donegal chieftain Manus O'Donnell produced the Betha Colaim Chille, a vernacular Life compiled from a range of sources.
For instance, citing a poem ascribed to Mura of Fahan, it relates that Columba was sent to Temple Douglas, in the modern parish of Conwal, to be baptized by Cruithnechán mac Cellacháin, who then fostered the boy in Kilmacrenan, County Donegal.