The church was built in the fourteenth century at the site of Benedictine Abbey of St. John the Theologian[1] that had been founded by the House of Lusignan.
First reference about the church appears in historical sources starting from the eleventh century.
[2] Due to frequent Mamluk invasions Benedictines left the island in 1426, and the monastery was passed over to the Orthodox.
[3] Archbishop Nikiphoros reconstructed the church in the seventeenth century.
The slab has a date, 30 April 1662, indicating when reconstruction of the church was started.