The monastery was according to legend built in the 4th century by a king named
Senchareb as penance for martyring his son
Mar Behnam and daughter Sarah after they converted to Christianity. After its establishment, the monastery was part of the
Church of the East up until the 14th century as evidenced by
Mongolic inscriptions left by Mongolian Christian pilgrims in the 1200s, and contributed greatly to the Christian world under the care of the
Syriac Orthodox Church. Inscriptions on sculptures in the church show that renovations were made to the monastery in 1164 and between 1250 and 1261. Records show that the monastery suffered greatly during the period from 1743 to 1790 due to attacks carried out by
Nader Shah and later
Persian Muslim rulers against the Christians in the region. In 1790 the monastery was taken over by the Catholic Church and was managed for eight years until the Syriac Orthodox church retook it. For unknown reasons, the monks abandoned the monastery in 1819—likely due to the loss of their flock in that region. The Syriac Catholic Church resumed possession of the monastery, and repopulated it in 1839; it has continued in this state to the present time with the exception of a three-year abandonment as a result of the
2014 ISIS invasions. The monastery is the former residence and present resting place of a number of
Syriac Orthodox Patriarchs. == Current status ==