The first news of S. Barbara of Novi is contained in the known degreeof Guaimario IV published by Muratori and always under close scrutinyfor handwriting and state of preservation, but also because it is one of the two donations made by the Prince at the request of his wife, Princess Porpora.

No less important is another degree of that prince, dating after 1005: Guaimario IV, in renewing the concessions made to abbot Luke of the Italian-greek monastery of Santa Barbara, added othersassets to successor Abbot Nicholas. Both these diplomas inform usof three hegumens in the monastery of St. Barbara in the lateX and early XI, namely Cosmas, Luke and Nicholas.

The diploma of 1005 is explicit mention of a mill which demonstratedalready at that time the existence of an organized center in placeand then the seniority of a core formed with the arrival of the first Byzantine monk who from Velia, through the valley of Bruca hadchose as his pupil a winding steep gorge eroded by the torrent(Town today called Tuorno).

The special topography of the place suggest the likelyexistence in place of a «laura » who united the religious that have appeared aroundthe church, that, as a normal, was built in the middle of a land. The presence of the monks stimulated other crops, building homesand fabrice, buildings essential to the operation of the rural company.Buildings that gradually sprang up around the church «constructa (...) ad honorem beate martiris Barbare » which was named the monastery and the inhabitantsof the village (St. Barbara della Bruca, Di Grasso, then Ceraso).

Casale arisen notbefore of the ninth century, as the cult of the martyr was introduced in the West only towards the end of the seventh and the first image of the saint in Italy (Church of Santa Maria Antiqua in the Roman Forum) is just of the eighth.Here the first settlement, within which was soon built another church dedicated to Our Lady, that then went on to develop on the slope bordered by two valleys: today's St. Barbara, which forphysical needs of the land tends to go back to the old convent.Just near the ancient abbey was built the newparish church, after the demolition of the oldest, dedicatedthe patron Saint Elias, struck years ago by lightning that hit thebell tower and the small sacristy.

The «monasterium St. Barbare, ubi Cerasus dicitur »is also rememberedin the bubbles confirmation of Abbot Marino of Eugene III from Tusculum on 6May 1149 and of Alexander III in January 1168.The diploma of William IV of Novi are helpful to understand that the two monasteries of S. Mauro and S. Marina were congregated with that of St. Barbara according to statutes of St. Theodore of Studium. In the same diploma is news of the extension of those «tenimenta » delimited «per fine et mensuras juxto pass (u) hommis mensurata. » Diploma in which Venieri sees the sale to Abbot Peter also of the «Vaxalla istius castri cum omnimoda iurisdictione » and which the abbot «Benencasa » used the year later (1187) to define the boundaries of property of the abbey in Cilento with William Sanseverino « Iustitiarius et comestabulus » of the kingdom. By the KingWilhelm II, who appointed three judges, was in fact blocked thegradual annexation of the lands of the abbey to the barony of Rocca (Cilento).

The abbeys had confirmed the possession of the territory of St. Barbarain 1343 (Thomas Sanseverino, Count of Marsico) and in 1595.Among the local place names from the Italian-Greek or Byzantine saints, St. Fantino,hegumen in a monastery Mercurion, which indicates the presence in S.Barbara also of families of Cerchiara in Calabria. Hypothesis confirmedBy the presence, near the monastery of Cerchiara, of the place Frascinetowith lands in the locality Petrosa, and beyond S. Fantino of S. Barbara is indeed a place called Petrosa.

The Angevin-Aragonese war, who brought so much sorrow and ruins in Cilento, led the abbot Roberto in the year 1309 to give way for lifeduring the «presbiter Nicolaus qui dicitur Gallucellus de Nove » (toobtain the grant was obliged to confession Abbey) «casalisduo Sancte Barbare et Sancte Marine de lo Grasso », including vassalsand lands for the «censum in foro Salerni quod sit de mense Septembriunciam auri unam ponderis generalis ».

Obviously the above priesthood was to be paid particular attention both to St. Barbarathat in Novi, feudal seat, if the abbot agreed to the signing of the contractwhich is equivalent to a real investment feudal.St. Barbara and St. Marina continued to correspond with the barons ofNovi the gifts listed by William IV de Mannia in his diploma of1186. The Abbey of Cava, as well as the ecclesiastical jurisdiction also possessedthe civil and criminal of the two hamlets.

The last document parchment of Cava related to St. Barbara isof 1344. The prior of the monastery of St. Marina « Nicolaus Guerrerio de Ebulo » received, on behalf of the Abbey, the legacy of a house located in Santa Barbara.In addition to the visits of the abbot Tomaso and the abbot Maynerio is news of pastoral visits of many abbots of Cava after the Council of Trent tothe church of St. Barbara, which was also visited by the Bishop of Capaccio, Speranza, in 1812, perhaps by proxy abbot of Cava.

By decree « datum Romae, ex sedibus Sacrae Congregationis proEpiscopis die mensis 29 martii 1972 », Cardinal Confalonieri« Dioecesis Vallensis in Lucania Episcopum, nominat et constituit Administratorern Apostolicum «ad nutum S. Sedis » memoratarum paraeciarum (the 15 parishes subject to the Abbey of Cava, between which S. Barbara from 1104), cum omnibus iuribus, facultatibus et officiisquae Episcopis dioecesanis, to normam juris communis, competunt. «With great regret the locals saw transferredtheir spiritual jurisdiction held for 868 years by the beloved abbey of Cava.