It was built in the late 14th century, in the Genoan period, shortly before the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans. Located in Galata (Karaköy), it is the city’s only church built in the traditional style of the Armenian church architecture—namely with a dome with a conical roof.

According to a manuscript formerly kept at the Armash monastery the church was founded in 1391 by an Armenian merchant named Kozma from Kaffa in Crimea who bought the land on which it was built.

Galata at the time was a Genoese colony and the Armenians found more protection under their control rather than that of the Byzantine Empire.

The blacksmith Aved built the altar of the church as well as the Holy Cross chapel near the church. First concrete evidence of the existence of the church comes from two 1431 inscriptions on the church. The date is sometimes cited as the foundation date of the church.

Historian Kevork Pamukciyan believes that the current church was built on the location of St. Sargis, an Armenian church in Galata, mentioned in two Armenian manuscripts from 1360 and 1361.