The Church of St. Mary of Mongols was built by the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Maurikios Sopatra and her friend Eustolia on the fifth hill of Istanbul at the beginning of the 7th century. However, the church was demolished during the Crusaders’ reign in Constantinople in the 13th century.

In 1261, when the Byzantines recaptured the city, the church was rebuilt as a monastery by the emperor Isaakios Doukas. In 1281, Maria Despina Palaiologina returned to Costantinopol after her husband, the Mongolian emperor, passed away. And she reconstructed the church which survived to the present. Then, the church was given another name Mongols.

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