[7] In the ninth century the Saracens laid waste Apulia, destroyed the city of Canosa (Canusium) and captured Bari.

All connection with the Eastern Churches was finally severed during the eleventh century, as Bari became a direct ecclesiastical dependency of Rome.

Ironically the archbishop of Bari that irreversibly distanced his see from Byzantium, was Byzantius (1025), who obtained from the pope the privilege of consecrating his suffragans.

[citation needed] He also began the construction of the new cathedral, which was continued by his successors, Nicolo (1035), Andreas (1062), and Elias (1089) of the Benedictine Order.

By contrast to Bishop Bisanzio's Catholicism affections, Andreas, the archbishop from 1062 to at least 1066, kept an eye to the roots of his Faith, for example journeying to Constantinople, and at some point even converting to Judaism.

Roger Borsa, the Norman duke of Apulia, built a church, the Basilica of San Nicola to house his remains.

In 1113, the Baresi rejected the rule of Constance, the wife of Bohemond I of Antioch and made the archbishop Riso their leader instead.