The noble Calosirto family had the right of patronage over it for centuries. Resident on the Aragonese Castle, it was the family of Carlo Gaetano, an Alcantarine friar, who with the name of Giovan Giuseppe della Croce had been sanctified in 1839, becoming patron saint of the island of Ischia.
From the ancient hilltop church you could observe the islet of Sant'Angelo, on which the Benedictine abbey of Sancti Angeli alloquio had stood since before the year 1000. The heart of the cult of Saint Michael the Archangel was there. When at the end of 1808 the English fleet shelled the islet, causing the powder magazine located in the tower on the top to explode, the abbey suffered irreparable damage. And the inhabitants of the fishing village under the tower were left without a church, forced to go up to Serrara for every religious office.
When the village began to expand on the hill inland, it was natural to build the new church there. It was inaugurated in 1850 with the title of Maria Assunta in cielo. The Assumption is depicted in the canvas located in the apse. The venerated statue of St. Michael the Archangel was also immediately transported from the abandoned church on the islet to the new religious building. Today as then, every 29 September, the statue is solemnly carried in procession on land and sea.
The church was then dedicated to San Michele, when it was elevated to a parish on 1 May 1905 by Bishop Mario Palladino, even if royal recognition came only ten years later. The first parish priest was Canon Giuseppe Iacono, who in 1876 had his family donate the lush vineyard next to the church to create, at the expense of the Municipality, a small cemetery serving the village of Sant'Angelo.
