The church was built around 1450 on the site of a Bogomil necropolis that included around 150 stećci (monumental, ornate tombstones).

[3] According to some legends, recorded for the first time by Ljubomir Nenadović,[4] the 17th-century military commander Bajo Pivljanin and his wife are buried beneath them.

[5] According to another legend and documentary evidence, the stećci mark the graves of the founders of the church — Ivan Borojević, born in Stari Vlah, and his wife Jelica.

[10] The church was initially made of sticks (Serbian: плот, romanized: plot), switches and mud and was rebuilt three times.

[11][12] A guard rail around the church was built in 1897 using barrels of Ottoman rifles[13] captured in 1858 during the Battle of Grahovac.