The church dedicated to the Passion of Christ is little known among the city's residents due to the persecution of the Church during the Soviet era, although its history is closely linked to the history of Saratov. Even before Peter I, a chapel was built at the site of the modern intersection of Moskovskaya and Oktyabrskaya streets, which was then located outside the fortress. The exact date of its construction is unknown, but the first mention of it dates back to April 1696.

In 1827, the wooden chapel was rebuilt into a stone church and consecrated. In 1860, after another reconstruction for expansion, the church was consecrated in honor of the Passion of Christ, and in 1866, a chapel in honor of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God was added. Since the church was attached to the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Male Monastery and monks served there, it was popularly called Kinovia, which translates from ancient Greek as 'communal living'.

By the mid-19th century, the church found itself in the center of Saratov. It was richly decorated thanks to benefactors: expensive utensils, sacred vestments, and icons in silver-gilded frames. Although the church did not have a bell tower, eight bells, the largest weighing about 690 kg, hung on special poles on the southern side of the building.

After the 1917 revolution, the church and its courtyard were closed, the buildings were reconstructed and divided, and a House of Folk Creativity was established there. Later, the building housed the Saratov studio of Soyuzkinokhronika, and after the war, the Lower Volga studio of newsreels.

In the early 1990s, due to the difficult economic situation in the country, the studio reduced its film production, and in 2002, its privatization began. The premises were rented out.

In 2012, the building of the Church of the Passion of Christ was returned to the Saratov Diocese. On July 29, 2012, the first Divine Liturgy was held in the church. At the end of that year, large-scale repair and restoration work began.

Since June 2014, services resumed in the church. Every Sunday at 10:00, Gospel readings take place, during which a chapter from the Gospel is discussed.

Due to the start of large-scale reconstruction of the church, with the blessing of Metropolitan Longin of Saratov and Volsk, a temporary church was set up in a neighboring building. On March 10, 2017, the archpriest of the Trinity district, Father Nikolai Gensitsky, along with the rector of the church and the clergy of the district, performed the Rite of placing the Antimension in the temporary church, after which the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts was held.