It was originally built as a Roman Catholic convent by the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, whose sisters were commonly called the Visitandines.

The design for the exterior was also quite original with the street elevation's three components, the arch with its Michelangelo inspired portal and projecting cross, the toit à l'impèriale with its lantern, and the cross-topped spire, drawing the eye heavenward.

[10] The church crypt, finished in 1665, was the family mausoleum of Nicolas Fouquet, Superintendent of Finances for Louis XIV, whose remains were transferred to Paris a year after his death.

[clarification needed] In 1792 the sisters were expelled and the Society of Friends of the Law, led by the courtesan Theroigne de Mericourt, used the chapel for meetings.

[13] After the Revolution the sisters reconstituted their convent as the Monastère de la Visitation at 68 avenue Denfert-Rochereau where it continues to the present day.

The first time that Pastor Paul-Henri Marron preached in the new church he remarked on how Protestants could now worship in freedom and security nestled between such symbols of the oppression of their forebears, the Bastille and the home of the Jesuits in the Lycée Charlemagne.

[16] The church was home to the famed city planner Georges-Eugène Haussmann and architect Victor Baltard during their student days at Collège Henri IV.