In the early 17th century, there was already a wooden church of St. Catherine with a chapel of St. Onuphrius in the city. It was located behind the Glebov gates, in the fortress, in the Streltsy settlement, not far from the modern Young Spectator Theater. Between 1697 and 1699, a stone church was built to replace the wooden one, with Nikita Bukhvostov as the contractor, according to legend. This church was dismantled in the early 18th century.

The current stone church of St. Catherine is located on the territory of the central market, which was created during the Soviet era on the site of demolished city blocks. The church was built in 1798 in the former Soldier's settlement on the high left bank of the Lybed River. In the second half of the 20th century, the river was enclosed in a pipe, its bed was drained, and a park was created there. Until 1836, a separate bell tower stood by the church, which was connected to the expanded refectory in 1885. The vaults of the refectory were dismantled, and the outer walls were partially used as internal supports for the roof truss structures and flat wooden ceiling. In 1906, two more chapels were arranged in the church, and now it has three altars: in the name of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, St. Catherine the Great Martyr, and St. George the Victorious. In the late 19th century, additional rooms were added to the bell tower. An ornate metal fence on a brick base with arched gates and wickets was installed around the church, and the brick pillars of the fence were topped with spheres. The walls and vaults of the square were repainted anew. Next to the church, behind the fence, there was a brick building of the church parish school, built with the funds of the benefactor Evlampiy Efimovich Akimov.

During the Soviet era, the church was used as a trading pavilion, cafeteria, and hairdresser. Because of this, the upper tiers of the bell tower were dismantled, and inter-floor ceilings were arranged in the square and apse, with the baroque eyebrows above the windows of the second light of the temple being trimmed. From 1978 to 1990, the Ryazan Scientific Restoration Administration carried out restoration work, during which late partitions and ceilings were removed. According to the project of architect S.G. Varganov, the vault and roof of the square with the dome and cross, the roof of the refectory, as well as door and window fillings were restored. In 1991, worship services resumed in the church, and in 1998, the upper tiers of the bell tower were restored.

The church is one of the few surviving temples in Ryazan in the style of early classicism, with elements of mature classicism in the decoration of the bell tower facades. The decor of the refectory is done in an eclectic style. The church belongs to the traditional three-part type. The longitudinal-axial composition includes a two-light square of the temple with a rectangular altar and a rounded eastern wall, a wider lowered refectory, and a three-tiered bell tower. The convex faceted roof of the temple is topped with a small blind octagon and a dome-like top on a drum. The two lower tiers of the bell tower are in the shape of squares, with the middle tier resembling a half-tier in size. The third cylindrical tier is topped with a dome roof with a spire on an octagonal pedestal.