During and after the
Armenian genocide in the
Ottoman Empire and the loss of their homelands about 50,000 Armenians found refuge in Iran. After the
Sovietization of Armenia in 1920 and the purges under
Joseph Stalin, more refugees from Armenia crossed the border to Iran, among them
Nikolai Lauri from
Nagorno-Karabakh, the architect of the church. Therefore, the number of Armenians — in their majority members of the
Armenian Apostolic Church — in the Iranian capital increased significantly and the need to build a new church arose. On 17 April 1937, a meeting was held with the presence of Armenian architects, and Nikolai Lauri was asked to present a plan to build a church based on a budget of 60,000
tomans. However, Nikolai Lauri died in 1939, and the plan was realized by
Nikolai Markov.
Roman Isayan (called Isayev in Russia) financed the construction of the church, which cost 100,000 tomans. Construction works began on 17 April 1938 with the participation of a large number of Armenians and clergy of the churches in Tehran. The church was completed in 1938 and christened in 1945 by
Karekin I, Catholicos of Cilicia, as the Church of Holy Mary. From 1945 to 1960, it was the main office and residence of the Archbishop of the Armenians, which was later transferred to the new
Saint Sarkis Cathedral completed in 1970. On 13 February 2002, the church was registered by the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization of Iran as a
national monument, with the registration number 7237. == Church architecture ==