Evelyne Patlagean has shown that holiness could be a mark of distinction used by aristocratic families to enhance their legitimacy and superiority. Besides women and neomartyrs who died at the hands of Arabs or Bulgars, we know of a few aristocratic saints during the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries : the forefather of an empress, Philaretos, and a military officer, Eudokimos. The analysis of their cults suggests that aristocracy engaged in the making of saints and hagiography, even if timidly, and developed a conception of its own power.