In 1214, two years after the foundation, the Cenobium was consigned to Cistercians monks coming from Fossanova. It became an abbey in 1223 and, after ten years, it was directly dependent from the Cistercians mother house in Clairvaux in France.
Cistercians monks, at the beginning, do not accept the idea of moving there as the position of the complex was unsuitable for their needs.
Only after the Pope imposition and the promise of forthcoming funds, in June 1214, the Prior and eight monks, took possession of the “Canonica”.
Pietro Capuano asserted that the Convent was incomplete and was going to be completed in two years. In the meantime the monks adapted to celebrate the mass in the old church of S. Pietro a Toczolo and to live in a precarious way.
In 1223, the Emperor Federico II of Palermo sent a special declaration to the Abbot of Amalfi, informing that he was underneath his protection and assigned to the monastery all the properties donated.
This privileges and in particular the economic wellness allowed the convent to live a period of prosperity with the consequent affirmation of numerous monks.

This wellness lasted till the first half of 1400; but although the attention reserved to the religious institution also from the Angevin monarchy, a long period of decay occurred between the 14th and 15th centuries.

Nonetheless, since 1384, Vicar of the Order of Cistercians, exonerated the monastery from the payment of any taxes, this decision did not avoid the Convent to be abandoned from the Cistercians monks.