The first wooden churches on the site of the current Nativity of Christ church appeared in the 17th century, when there was a village called Krovovo, belonging to the Makaryevo-Unzhensky Monastery. In 1625, with the blessing of Patriarch Filaret of Moscow and all Rus, the monastery's abbot, Igumen Zosima, moved the old building of the Trinity Church with an altar in honor of the holy martyrs Flora and Lavra to Krovovo. By the early 18th century, the wooden church had deteriorated, and on October 11, 1715, the construction of a new one began. In two years, the church was built and consecrated on February 14, 1717, by the monastery's abbot, Igumen Leontiy Pavlov. The main shrine became the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, painted by the famous Russian icon painter Korniliy, in the world Kirill Ulanov. The new church was consecrated in honor of this icon.

After the 1917 revolution, the 'old cathedral' took on a special role in the life of the Makaryevo region. In the early 1920s, the authorities transferred the Tikhvin and Alexander Nevsky cathedrals to the Renovationists, and in 1929, the Makaryevo-Unzhensky Monastery was closed. In the 1930s, the Nativity of Christ church remained the only functioning church in Makaryevo. In 1937, the last abbot of the church, priest Alexander Vasilyevich Volodin, was arrested and executed, after which the church was closed. In 1945, after numerous requests from the residents of Makaryevo, the church was returned to the believers, and in September of the same year, services resumed there. Thus, it became the only functioning church in the Makaryevo district. From 1992 until its transfer in 1994 to the Makaryevo-Unzhensky Convent, the church housed the relics of St. Makaryevo Unzhensky the Miracle Worker.