At the end of the 14th century the monk Ēwosṭātēwos initiated a powerful monastic movement in the northern part of the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia. Ever since, his cult has been particularly enduring. There are still copies and commentaries of his Vita and his miracles. This text called gadla Ēwosṭātēwos, which means « the spiritual fight of Ēwosṭātēwos », is written in classical Ethiopic. However the way this hagiographical text was conceived and transmitted remains unclear and is often misunderstood. This article, therefore, aims at examining the different manuscripts containing the gadla Ēwosṭātēwos in order to reveal divergent hagiographical traditions and different layers of rewriting. The detailed analysis of hagiographical rewriting will shed light on the historical context in which the gadla Ēwosṭātēwos was created.