In May 1869 Catholicos Gevorg IV laid the cornerstone of the Gevorkian Seminary on the grounds of Etchmiadzin.

On 5 October 1874 the Caucasus Commission told the Armenian Church that the tsar had approved the seminary charter and it was allowed to open.

During and after the Armenian genocide, the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin was filled with massive numbers of refugees.

Catholicos Gevork I and the director, Bishop Karekin Hovsepiants, decided to temporarily close the seminary in December 1917.

On 28 June 1928, Catholicos Gevork V applied to the president of the Peoples Commissariat Council Sahak Ter-Gabrielian to reopen the seminary.