The monastery was built in 1570 by Sleiman el Hajj Hobeish. He dedicated a church and some adjacent cells to St John the Baptist. The church is a high crib vault with many spolias used in the building.

The monastery was used as an episcopal seat to the sees of Beirut and Damscus. In 1642 Bishop Youssef Halib el Aqoury bought the old monastery and built the nunery the next year. Upon Bishop’s Youssef election in 1643 the monastery became a patriarchal see.

After him many bishops resided, and Patriarch Michael Fadel also took it as his see. In the XIXth century the monastery became a noviciate.

The importance of this monastery to the church resides in it’s being a patriarcal seat, it was built right after the return of the Maronites to Kesserwan, it was one of the first headquarters to a canonical monastic order after the Lebanese council of 1736.