According to tradition, the convent was founded by Francis of Assisi, who stopped in Pontevedra when he was on the Portuguese Way to Santiago de Compostela.

The arrival of the Franciscan order in the city may have taken place in the last third of the 13th century, the building being constructed between 1310[1] and 1360, with the economic help of the heirs of Paio Gomez Charino.

The convent was built on the site of a former Templar house and church on land belonging to the Soutomaior noble family, next to the walls of Pontevedra, taking advantage of several old towers, one of which has medieval remains, possibly dating from the 11th century.

[3] In 1362, the construction of the apse of the church of the Poor Clares, similar to that of St. Francis, but smaller in size, was begun in the city.

An extension paid for by Archbishop Malvar at the end of the 18th century replaced the convent's medieval cloister[2] and erected the church tower.

[10] At the beginning of the 20th century, the municipal fire station was housed in an outbuilding with a façade at the back of the convent.

[5] On 15 January 1909, Father Luis María Fernández Espinosa and five other friars returned to the premises, with a twenty-five-year lease for 250 pesetas per year.

The church has several chapels dedicated to: the Sorrows or Annunciation (1590) on the Epistle side, the Good Success or Sacred Heart (1670), the Third Order, the Immaculate Conception and Mercy (1677), St. Anthony, St. Elizabeth or the Visitation.

[14][15] The Stained glass windows in the church have a deeply Franciscan iconographic programme: in the main chapel, the themes of Christ and Mary are represented in the centre with the images of the Ecce homo and our Lady of Sorrows.

Above the central window of the balcony on the façade, above a small pediment, there is a Pontevedra stone coat of arms.

[18] The convent is home to the community kitchen St. Francis, which feeds a number of needy people from Monday to Saturday.