[1][2] The first chapel was constructed at the end of the 11th century by the monks of the Priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, a Benedictine monastery, as a church for the servants of the abbey.

The early features of the church, including the west front, the lower bell tower, the seven first traverses of the nave, and the first collateral aisle on the south side.

[5][2] The church was closed during the French Revolution, and converted briefly into a Temple devoted to "Hymen and Fidelity".

[7] The west front, or facade dates to the 15th century, and is Flamboyant in style, with three pignons or pointed gables corresponding to the nave and the two lower aisles.

The Gothic pillars that supported the arcades and vaults in the choir were replaced by classical Doric order columns, topped by pilasters in the Ionic style.

[10] The oldest part of the interior, from the fifteenth century, contains the seven first traverses of the nave, and the first collateral aisle on the south side.

[11] The west porch is the vestibule of the church, and was frequently used for ceremonies, including baptisms, blessings of wedded couples, and the presentation of alms to the poor.

Nicolas Chaperon was a student of Poussin in Rome, and Michel Corneille the Elder and Quentin Varin created major decorative work in Paris churches.

The most famous work of Michel Corneille the Elder, "St. Paul and St. Barnabas at Lystra", is found in Notre Dame de Paris.

The thirty-three chapels of the church present a varied and colourful galley of works by major French religious painters, as well as Italians and Spaniards, of the 16th and 17th centuries.

[14] One important early work is "The Madonna of the Vic Family", by the celebrated Flemish portrait painter, Frans Pourbus the Younger (1617).

It portrays Louis IX with his sword, sceptre, and golden spurs, adoring the Virgin and the Christ Child.

[15] Another important early work is "The Virgin of Pity" by Georges Lallemant, found in the Chapel of Compassion on the left collateral aisle.

[16] The more modern Spanish realist painter Leon Bonnat (1833-1922) is represented by the painting "Saint Vincent de Paul repurchases the galley slaves", found in the Chapel of the Holy Family in the left collateral aisle.

Among the organists who worked at the church were Nicolas Gigault (1652–1707), Etienne Richard (1651–1669), Louis Braille (1834–1839), François-Xavier Joseph Wackenthaler (1854–1855), Jean-Chrisostome Hess (1855–c.1889), and Michel Chapuis (1954–1972).

During his time at the church he revised his 1829 book, "Method of Writing Words, Music, and Plain Songs by Means of Dots, for Use by the Blind and Arranged for Them.'