While Qrendi formed part of the parish of Żurrieq, in 1575 its main church was dedicated to the Nativity of Mary.

The site chosen was the land on which two small churches stood next to each other, one dedicated to the Assumption of Our Lady and the other to St Anthony.

The work on the new parish church started in 1620, and with the contribution of the community the construction was concluded thirty-five years later, that is in 1655.

The building of the parish church continued when in 1668 work started on the belfry known as ‘Tal-Agunija’ (Agony), which took eleven years to complete.

Domenico Formosa, a native of Qrendi, the parish church was thus once again demolished so that a more spacious edifice could be built.

His zeal moved the villagers to give their contribution to the construction of the church which began in 1685 and continued till 1691, stopping for a number of years and then resuming in 1695.

According to Ferres, on 17 January 1699 Don Domenico, wishing to encourage his parishioners to do more towards the construction of the church, thought of lending a hand so as to lead by example.

On reaching the top, while Don Domenico was stepping on a plank of the scaffolding he tripped and fell to the ground dying on the spot – a victim of his remarkable zeal.

Pietro Zerafa, who took over the administration of Qrendi in 1701, ordered the dismantling of part of the already built structure to enlarge the church.

A later addition is the sacristy which stands to the left of the choir; this was added in the nineteenth century on the initiative of Rev.

Thus the parish priest Pietro Paolo Xuereb commissioned the artist Giuseppe Calleja to decorate the dome, the ceiling and the main pilasters of the church.

The current titular painting was commissioned in 1917 to the renowned artist Giuseppe Calì and replaced the one that hung on the main altar, the work of Rocco Buhagiar The Qrendi parish church has two sacristies.

There is also a statue by Karlu Darmanin that represents St Philip Neri and which was in the past carried during the procession of Our Lady of Lourdes.