In the 15th century, the area of the current church housed a monastery of Cistercian nuns who had moved here from Torcello, the nearby islands now largely uninhabitable.

In 1472 a hospice was built with an annexed small church, which is shown in the plan of Venice made by Jacopo de' Barbari.

The church and the nunnery were suppressed by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807 and left abandoned until Giovan Battista Giustinian [it] turned them into a convalescent facility for elderly people.

On 13 March 1673 Agostino Litterini received an important commission from Abbess Teodora Sansonio for the decoration of the main chapel in collaboration with the painter Bologna Giacomo Grassi.

[2]: 33  In the left one, which belongs to the Michiel family, Litterini painted God the Father at the back of the chapel and four Virtues in the vault.