The monastery was founded, probably in 946, by Prince Alberic’s three cousins Marozia, Stefania and Theodora, perhaps as part of his planned revival of monasticism in the city under his rule. It was closely associated with his family, and contained the relic of the head of St Cyriacus, brought into Rome from the catacombs. Several high-born women from the Roman aristocracy were nuns and abbesses there during the first hundred years of its existence.

The monastery was given by Alberic then by others an considerable amount of property, both in and outside the city, and proceeded to develop into a major landowner into the 11th century, as well as receiving and producing artistic works of great quality. It became amalgamated with the church of Sta Maria in Via Lata.

While the monastery was dissolved in 1435, the church is still visible in the centre of Rome.