It was founded in 1718 as a private church by Constantinos Varvarigos and became a collegiate church in 1723.

The church is dedicated to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but is also known as the Church of Our Lady of the Foreigners. It was built on Lefkada, as on most of the Ionian Islands, to receive refugees seeking refuge from the Turks on mainland Greece and Crete.