The foundation of the monastery is credited by historical tradition to the monk Stephen, one of the Thirteen Assyrian Fathers active in the 6th century.

The foundation of the monastery is associated in medieval Georgian tradition—elaborated in the hymns by the 13th-century cleric Arsen Bulmaisimisdze—with the 6th-century monk Stephen, one of the Assyrian missionaries.

[2] In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the monastery underwent yet another renovation and was restored to the Georgian Orthodox Church.

A reused stone, placed upturned in an arch under the dome, bears a foundational inscription in the medieval Georgian asomtavruli letters, which contains the date 886 and now-illegible name of the certain eristavi ("duke").

An inscription, also in asomtavruli, in a sculpted cross on the right of the south window commemorates King Leon of Kakheti (r. 1520–1574).