Traditional accounts state that in the year 325 Helena, the mother of Constantine I, coming back from Jerusalem with the True Cross and entering the City through the Port tou Psomatheou, left in this place some vases ("Gastria") containing aromatic herbs collected on Calvary.

Together with her daughters Thekla, Anna, Anastasia and Pulcheria, Theodora was removed to the monastery by her brother Bardas after her deposition as regent for her son, Michael III, in 856.

The 10th-century emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos writes in his book De Ceremoniis that the church of the nunnery served also as a mausoleum for the members of Theodora's family.

[6] Shortly after the Fall of Constantinople, Hayrettin Effendi, Sancaktar (standard-bearer) of Sultan Mehmed II, converted the building into a mescit (oratory) and was buried there.

[2] Due to its small dimension, the building cannot be identified with the church of the nunnery, but rather with a martyrion (burial chapel) or a mausoleum,[2] which can be dated to the Palaiologan period (14th century).