The Order of the Capuchin Poor Clares was introduced to France by Queen Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont, who wanted to create a convent in Bourges to be buried at.

Upon her death on January 29, 1601, she bequeathed to her brother, Philippe Emmanuel, Duke of Mercœur, a sum of 60,000 livre tournois to build it; however, he died in February of 1602.

By letters patent on June 8, 1602, Henry IV authorized the widow of the Duke of Mercœur, Marie de Luxembourg, to build a Capuchin convent, but in Paris instead of Bourges.

[1] When rebuilding the convent, François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois had required that the contractor Maurice II Gabriel (1632-1693) reuse the materials of the old building.

By 1720, the portal of the church was already heavily degraded, likely due to Louvois' choice to build the convent on plaster rubble.

Physicist and stage magician Étienne-Gaspard Robert presented fantasized shows in the old church using a magic lantern called a fantascope.