In 1632, a monk from Kyiv named Matfei appeared in the village of Prudishchi in the Nizhny Novgorod district. He dug a cave in the mountain near the Church of John the Baptist and began to live there, earning a living as a turner. Soon, a local peasant named Ilarion joined him. Together, they built a hut from bast near the Bulach spring, three versts from the village. Later, monk Markel from the Makaryev Monastery and hermit Makariy, who became their mentor in prayer, joined them. Voivode Ivan Leontyev, the owner of Prudishchi, allocated land, and Patriarch Joseph blessed the establishment of the monastery. The first building was a wooden Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which later burned down. Under the abbess Paul, stone buildings were constructed, including the Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and the Assumption Church with a chapel dedicated to Archangel Michael, and the construction of a third temple was started but never completed.

Under Peter I, the monastery fell into decline and in 1721 was annexed to the Oran Mother of God Desert. Under Catherine II, the Marov Desert was abolished. By the mid-19th century, a wooden chapel remained at the site of the desert near the Bulach spring. In the 1870s, Ivan Petrovich built two cells to revive the monastery. After his death, Nikolai Demidov financed the construction of a stone chapel in 1885. In 1887, Bishop Dmitry of Balakhna visited the ruins of the monastery and blessed its revival. In 1901, the Marov Exaltation of the Holy Cross women's community was established, and a wooden Trinity Church was consecrated, which housed three icons of the Mother of God.

In 1927, the community was closed, the church was turned into a club, and the unfinished stone cathedral was blown up. Only the foundation of the monastery remained. In 1997, the first procession with the icon of the 'Deliverer' took place to Krasnye Mary. In 2008, Archbishop Georgy blessed the construction of a new monastery. In 2009, the project for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Marov Women's Monastery was approved, which will be surrounded by a stone wall and include several temples, living quarters, and other buildings. The land for construction was provided by the Investment Council under the Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, with completion planned for 2018.

On August 29, 2009, a procession took place from the Church of Saint Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian to the ruined monastery. In 2010, the first logs for the Nikolsky Church were consecrated in Sokoly, which became the fifth project of the 'Taiga' company for the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese. In August 2010, Archbishop Georgy led the procession and prayer for the laying of the church. In July 2011, work on the iconostasis began, and in August, the church was consecrated. In 2015, an archbishop's courtyard was established in Marov in honor of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord of the Lyskov Diocese.