Its date of dedication as an Eastern Orthodox church is unknown, but it is commonly identified with the 9th-century Monastery of Manuel (Greek: Μονὴ τοῦ Μανουήλ).

The tradition says that in the ninth century Manuel the Armenian, a general in the wars against the Saracens during the reign of Emperor Theophilos (r. 829–842), built a monastery converting his house, which lay near the cistern of Aspar.

[2] Manuel was the uncle of Empress Theodora, wife of Theophilos, and before retiring to his monastery he was one of the three counselors who assisted her in the regency for her infant son Michael III, following the death of her husband.

[1] The documented history of the current edifice begins in 1475, shortly after the Fall of Constantinople, when the Ottomans conquered the Genoese colony of Caffa, in Crimea.

All the Latin, Greek and Jewish inhabitants who lived in Caffa ("Caffariotes" or, in Turkish, Kefeli) were then deported to Istanbul and relocated to this quarter.

[4] The building is a large hall, 22.6 meter long by 7.22 wide,[5] and is oriented in north–south direction, which is quite uncommon among the Byzantine churches in Constantinople.