The monastery was built in the 4th century by a king named Senchareb as penance for martyring his son Mar Behnam and daughter Sarah after they converted to Christianity. After its establishment, the monastery was part of the Church of the East up until the 14th century as evidenced by Mongolic inscriptions left by Mongolian Christian pilgrims in the 1200s, and contributed greatly to the Christian world under the care of the Syriac Orthodox Church. Inscriptions on sculptures in the church show that renovations were made to the monastery in 1164 and between 1250 and 1261. Records show that the monastery suffered greatly during the period from 1743 to 1790 due to attacks carried out by Nader Shah and later Persian Muslim rulers against the Christians in the region. The monks of the monastery established contact with the Catholic Church in Rome in the late 18th century seeking protection against Nader Khan, which led to the gradual conversion of the inhabitants of Bakhdida to the Syriac Catholic Church. In 1790 the monastery was taken over by the Catholic Church and was managed for eight years until the Syriac Orthodox church retook it. For unknown reasons, the monks abandoned the monastery in 1819—likely due to the loss of their flock in that region. The Syriac Catholic Church resumed possession of the monastery, and repopulated it in 1839; it has continued in this state to the present time with the exception of a three-year abandonment as a result of the 2014 ISIS invasions. The monastery is the former residence and present resting place of a number of Syriac Orthodox Patriarchs.
Current status
The monastery was renovated in 1986, and was visited by thousands of Christians and Muslims yearly until ISIS took control of the area. During the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive, jihadist troops of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant took control of the monastery. The troops removed crosses from the monastery, threatened monks with execution and then expelled the monks with nothing but the clothes on their backs. On March 19, 2015 Islamic State released photos showing the blowing up of the historic tomb of Saint Behnam. After more than 2 years of occupation, the monastery and its surrounding area was liberated by Iraqi Security Forces on November 20, 2016.
