 Colmán hardly ever appears in sources other than his "Lives", two late martyrologies (see below) and a list of Irish homonyms.Both prose and verse appear to have been written by the same author and there is no indication that the work draws on earlier versions in either Irish or Latin, unlike many other Irish saints' "Lives" produced about the time.James Carney regards the "Life" as "so extravagant that it is something approaching a satire", akin to "Aislinge Meic Con Glinne".