The consistory extract dated February 22, 1844, reports that representatives of the society of state peasants from the village of Bogoyavlenskaya, also known as Kotovka, Fedot Rykunov and Grigory Chuykov, appealed to the Voronezh Spiritual Consistory for permission to build a wooden church on a stone foundation in honor of St. Dimitri, the Miracle Worker and Metropolitan of Rostov. They justified the need for construction by stating that the nearest church is seven versts away, in the village of Nikolskoye (Ofrosimovo), and due to bad weather and river flooding, elderly people cannot attend church, and children are deprived of the opportunity to study the Holy Scriptures.

The residents of Kotovka committed to maintaining the church and providing the clergy with estate land, building houses for them, and supplying them with everything necessary. Archbishop Anthony of Voronezh and Zadonsk supported their request, adding that there are 406 men living in the village, which is sufficient for establishing a new parish.

According to the emperor's decree and the order of the Holy Synod, by 1847 the church was built. In the insurance assessment document dated July 3, 1910, conducted by priests and parishioners, it is described that the church was wooden on a brick foundation, clad with planks and painted with oil paint. Inside, it was not plastered but also painted and covered with iron. The length of the church with the bell tower was 35 arshins, and the width was 12 arshins. There were 16 large windows and 6 small ones, three external and four internal doors. The bell tower was two-tiered, with a total height of 18 arshins. Ten sazhens from the church stood a wooden building on a brick foundation, which housed a watchman's lodge and a church school. Sixteen sazhens from the church stood a public shop covered with straw.

After the 1917 revolution, much changed in the lives of the parishioners, but the Dimitrievsky church continued to operate for almost 20 years. Archive data indicates that the Bolsheviks confiscated church valuables but did not prohibit services. In the spring of 1935, the chairman of the Kotovsky village council, comrade Sidorov M.N., began a campaign against the church, and in 1937 the church was closed and destroyed.

On the site of the former church of St. Dimitri of Rostov, the residents of Kotovka erected a cross, which was consecrated by the archpriest of the Kastorensky church district, Father Alexy, in 2015.