The Franciscan Order had its first monastery in Vienna from 1451 with St. Theobald ob der Laimgrube in the Mariahilf district, which was destroyed in 1529.

[2] In 1589, after prolonged negotiations, the municipality of Vienna ceded to the Franciscans the empty convent of the Penitents, which had been built from 1383 to 1387.

About forty years earlier, the Counter-Reformer Petrus Canisius had preached regularly in the church.

When the Franciscans took over the building - in which former strumpets lived as penitents - the church was rebuilt, incorporating old components.

[3] As a result, Vienna's only sacred building in the Renaissance style is still often adorned with Gothic elements.