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.

Graduates of the seminary included Komitas, a pioneering ethnomusicologist and arranger of church music.

During the first 43 years of existence, the seminary prepared 43 clergymen/teachers who in turn provided education for thousands of students.

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.