Several Christian hagiographical texts written in Syriac from the 5th to 7th century convey a conflicting religious worldview in narrative forms that depict the encounters between Christian saints and Zoroastrian authorities. Such texts include the so-called Persian Martyrs Acts, which are literary products of Syriac communities living as a minority within the predominantly Zoroastrian religious context of the Sasanian Empire, and which portray the vicissitudes of a Christian (or of a group of Christians) martyred at the hands of a Zoroastrian persecutor. They also include stories emanating from the Roman Empire that found the Syriac monastic tradition in Mesopotamia, such as the History of Mar Awgin. In these texts, the heroes and the heroines embody particular religious values and are constructed in ‘dialogue’ with their antagonists who, in turn, are portrayed through a specific and negative register which belongs primarily to the religious vocabulary of competition and violence. But Christians and Zoroastrians are not alone in these stories. Manichaeans, traditionally considered as religious opponents both by Christians and Zoroastrians, also feature as secondary characters in a number of texts (e. g. The Martyrs of Karka d-Beth Slok, The Martyrdom of Aitallah, The Martyrdom of Anahid, etc.). In this paper, I aim to study the construction of the Manichaean character portrayed in such hagiographical texts, looking at literary roles as well as narrative structures: How is this traditional heretic built within a narrative which mainly features a conflict between Christians and Zoroastrians? What is the role the texts give to him and why? According to which religious and literary models? In order to answer these questions, I will compare the Syriac texts with direct Manichaean literature, as well as with other contemporary Christian hagiographical sources in Greek and Latin that portray a Manichaean character in the Roman Empire, and Persian and Arabic anti-Manichaeantexts. The paper claims that Syriac Christians played with specific literary roles and narrative patterns derived from both Manichaean and anti-Manichaean sources in a dynamic of sharing and replacement aimed at winning the competition with the Manichaean minority present in the Sasanian Empire. The paper also contributes to evaluate how narrations and motifs attached to Manichaean characters, either for apologetic or polemical goals, traveled across centuries and beyond geographical, religious and political frontiers, and were adapted to fit specific religious needs and propaganda.