A monastery, and church, under the discalced Carmelite nuns under the rule of Saint Teresa of Avila were patronized in the first quarter of the 17th-century by the then Duke of Montalto and his wife, Donna Maria, Princess of Paceco. In 1628, under the Cardinal Archbishop Doria, permission was granted to establish a monastery.

The next year, Pope Urban VIII also gave his approval. The initial monastery was located near Porta Carini, near the Monastery of the Concezione. But this latter monastery opposed the construction of this competitor, and a new site was chosen near Porta Mazzara. The first nuns were from the Monastery of San Giuseppe of Naples, and traveled under cloistered supervision to Palermo in a galley.

Received by the Princess of Paceco and the Cardinal Archbishop Francesco la Ribba, they were disembarked and installed in their cloistered setting. But this monastery proved uncomfortable, and the Prioress Maria Maddalena di San Agostino (al secolo, Cecilia Fardella e Paceco), sister of Donna Maria, supervised a move in 1653 to a site with the former palace of Vincenzo Gambacurta, near Porta de Greci.

The initial church was simple and by 1686, plans were made to erect the present church. The church was designed by the Palermitan architect Giacomo Amato and was completed by 1700. It was consecrated in 1711 by Don Bartolomeo Castelli, bishop of Mazzara and brother of the then prioress.