On December 12, 1901, the church project was submitted for approval to the Nizhny Novgorod Spiritual Consistory. On June 9, 1902, the Bishop of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas, His Grace Nazarius Kirillov, conducted the ceremony of laying the foundation of the new stone church in the village of Semyany. The first brick was laid by the archbishop, the second by V.A. Demidov, and the third by Ioann. The celebrations continued in the zemstvo school building. The church was planned as a three-altar structure dedicated to the assembly of the Archangel Michael and other incorporeal powers, the Holy Unmercenaries and Wonderworkers Cosmas and Damian, as well as Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker. Almost all the funds for the construction of the church were raised by local residents. The parish had 309 ½ households, with 1,238 men and 1,297 women, who collected nearly a quarter of a million rubles for the construction.

The solemn consecration of the church and the main altar took place on September 23, 1912. On the eve of the holiday, many clergymen and monks arrived in Semyany to Father Ioann, led by the bishop. The church was filled with people. During the liturgy, the local psalmist V.A. Voskresensky was ordained as a deacon. Two months later, on December 2, 1912, with the blessing of the archbishop, Father Ioann consecrated the third altar in honor of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker.

The Archangel church, built thanks to the efforts of Father Ioann, stood out among other rural churches of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese for its monumentality and beauty. The tall five-domed church with a bell tower was painted by Ivan Stepanovich Nikitin. The icons in the iconostasis were placed against a gold-embossed background. The main altar stood on a two-step mosaic marble platform. With the remaining funds from the construction, three bells were cast: a large one weighing 23 poods and two smaller ones, weighing 2 poods and 1 pood 20 pounds. The church had a library with 180 volumes and a parish school for girls, where 57 students were taught in 1916 under the guidance of teacher Anna Nikiforovna Martynova.

In 1936, when Father Ioann Krasovsky was the rector, despite the resistance of the parishioners, activists of the "Union of the Godless" managed to close the church and remove the bells. During the removal, two large bells fell: one onto the street, the other crashed through the ceiling onto the floor of the bell tower. The authorities planned to repurpose the church for collective farm needs, but this did not succeed.

In 1943, amid heavy losses on the front lines and famine in the rear, the Soviet government allowed churches to reopen to strengthen resistance against fascist propaganda and mobilize reserves. The residents of Semyany decided to take advantage of this opportunity and restore the church. The organization of this complex task was led by 32-year-old Anna Alexeyevna Egorova from Nikolsk, who achieved the reopening of the church and became the first woman head of the parish.