The royal cult of Saint Denis and Saint Remigius, considered special patron saints of the Carolingian Kings of the Franks and later of the Kingdom of the West Francia between the mid–8th century and the end of the 9th century, seems to have diminished after Hugh Capet and his descendants took royal power in 987. Both Hugh and his successor, Robert the Pious, seem to be looking for new patron saints of the monarchy in France. These are primarily local saints, such as St. Aignan of Orleans and St. Savinian of Sens, although there is also evidence of promotion of cults common in Europe, such as St. Benedict or the Virgin.
The aim of the paper is to present the early Capetian search for new patron saints of the dynasty, but also the political conditions for the valorisation, in the last years of the 10th and 11th centuries of the cult of patron saints of kings and kingdom other than the Carolingian ones, before Louis VI and Abbot Suger reinstated St. Dionysius as the principal patron saint of the French kingdom in the first quarter of the 12th century.