In 1818, a stone cathedral was built in the district town of Atkarsk with funds from parishioners, dedicated to the Archangel Michael. It was reconstructed in 1865. The cathedral had three altars: the main one in honor of the Archangel of the Heavenly Hosts, and in the refectory, in honor of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos and Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker. The clergy included a protodeacon, two priests, and two psalmists. Church houses were provided for them. A church school operated at the cathedral, and in the parish, there were three literacy schools: in the Atkarsk suburban settlement, Middle and Lower Kolyshley. The parish included part of the city of Atkarsk, the Atkarsk suburban settlement, and four villages: Yelizavetino, Middle Kolyshley, Lower Kolyshley, and Andreevka. From 1850 to 1853, the cathedral was led by protodeacon Ioann Pokrovsky, who founded the Dubovsky Women's Monastery.

In the summer of 1922, Nikolai Parfyonov, a resident of the Saratov Spaso-Transfiguration Monastery, was secretly consecrated as the Bishop of Atkarsk, a vicar of the Saratov Diocese. On March 18, 1923, his consecration was approved by Saint Patriarch Tikhon. Due to a spinal illness, Bishop Nikolai could not visit his cathedral city and lived in the Holy Alexiev Monastery of the Spaso-Transfiguration Monastery. In 1927, he was arrested, and after twelve years of exile and imprisonment, he died in the Vladimir Central Hospital.

In 1933, the Michael-Archangel Cathedral was closed and completely destroyed.

The Michael-Archangel parish was reestablished in 1991. On March 25, 1992, the Atkarsk city administration provided the parish with a hall in the building of the former people's court for gratuitous use. Annual repair and restoration work is carried out in the church, a baptistery is being built, and a bell tower has been erected. Domes have been installed on the church, and the roof has been covered. The church houses icons of St. Seraphim of Sarov and Blessed Matrona of Moscow with relics of their remains.