Though the Qing government proscribed Christianity in 1724, some underground missionary activities remained, and the church was completed three years later.

It currently houses the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Yellow River Soup Kitchen, and also contains a relic of St. Francis of Assisi.

[3][4] The Chinese government calls the cathedral "Wuxing Street Catholic Church" (五星街天主教堂) in reference to its address.

According to Liu Xiang, the Qing government, still distrustful of foreign missionaries, reluctantly offered other properties as compensation to the Catholic missions.

[6][12] When the convention was signed, the cathedral was being used as the family home of the late Zhang Danan [zh] (张大枏).

[13] In consideration of this, Liu Rong (刘蓉), the Xunfu of Shaanxi, offered the Catholic mission a mosque and five other houses instead of the church building.

From 1862 to 1865, Chiais and his auxiliary Amato Pagnucci, unaware that the Zhang family was living in the cathedral, negotiated with the Shaanxi government for the return of the original building.

[10][6] In 1866, after pressure from the French envoy to China and the Qing imperial court,[6] the Shaanxi government returned the church to the Catholic mission and paid 10,000 taels of silver to the widowed mother of Zhang.

[13][6] In 1883, on the grounds of the Zhang residence, Pagnucci built a new church building on the site with an area of 700 m2 (7,500 sq ft).

[6] The cathedral was appropriated by the Xi'an Candy Factory (Chinese: 西安糖果厂; pinyin: Xī'ān tángguóchǎng).

[9] In 1980, China's State Council instructed the Chinese government to return buildings confiscated from religious bodies during the Cultural Revolution, and the cathedral re-opened.

In 1989, the cathedral underwent restoration funded by China's State Administration for Religious Affairs and the Xi'an People's Government.

[7] On 23 November, the electricity of the cathedral was cut off, and a crew began to demolish the neighboring primary school at night.

A police official of Xi'an declined to comment on the attack and Chinese state media did not report on it.

[16] On 30 November, the Holy See issued a statement expressing "grief and disapproval" over the attack, saying "The violence committed in Xian against several defenseless nuns can only be firmly condemned.

[17] On 24 March 2016, Joachim Gauck, then President of Germany, visited the cathedral and talked with the archbishop of Xi'an, Anthony Dang Mingyan.

The Union of Catholic Asian News reported that events of such scale is rare in China due to governmental restrictions.

Radio Free Asia reported that some Catholics held a banner outside of the cathedral that says "protect the legal rights of the church."

[23] Yang Haozhong et al. argue that the fusion of Chinese and Western styles was due to the foreign missionaries' lack of professional design skills, as well as the preference of local artisans for using native materials.

It is decorated with brick carvings featuring traditional Chinese patterns, including flowers and Taotie.

Its charters were written by Wang Wenqing (王文清), a nun of the French-led Franciscan Missionaries of Mary who sought to establish a Chinese-led religious order.

[15] In December 2005, an English man named Tony Day founded the "Yellow River Soup Kitchen" at the cathedral.