The paper provides a joint analysis of the sequences of saints in the painted decorations of Cappadocia from the 9th to the 11th century and of some Greek islands in the 11th and 12th centuries. The rich pictorial heritage of rupestrian Cappadocia can be considered as a privileged observatory to investigate the development of the series of saints in middle-Byzantine painting. The comparative investigation of the decorations of Cappadocia and of the islands allows to detect common Constantinopolitan trends, similarities and specific choices due to the historical and cultural context and to the will of patrons, both in the selection of saints and in their arrangement within the ecclesiastical space.