The eleventh and twelfth centuries are not a heroic epoch for stylites, but a period during which they continue to forge a path towards holiness, among other monastic lifestyles, both within Byzantine society and in its literary imagination. Their numbers are not decreasing, but, during this same period, the official Church treats them with increased mistrust and the hagiographical discourse begins to ignore them. The discretion of their presence during this period is not a social issue, but a question of literary taste and an indication of the Church’s gradual grip on the definition of holiness. This article presents the case of Theodosius the stylite, present in the Life of Theodore of Edessa