The monastery was founded in 1689, and in 1794 it was moved outside the city. Here, the most influential residents of Penza were buried. The monastery was officially closed in 1918, and around 1935 it was demolished. From 1919 to 1921, a 'colony of defective children' was located on its territory, and from 1924, a horse-drawn cart was organized for the removal of waste. Some premises were used as stables and workers' apartments. However, monastic life continued until the arrest of the last abbot, Archimandrite Ioannikiy (Zharkov), in 1932.

In 1928-1929, services in the monastery churches were conducted by Archimandrite Ioannikiy and hieromonks Euphemius (Milovanov) and Makarii (Matiukhin), later joined by Nektarii and Sergii (Solovyev). The main services took place in the Spaso-Transfiguration Church, but the Ascension, Bethlehem, and bell tower were also used. In 1929, one of the churches became a 'dryer', another was dismantled by 1932, and yet another was repurposed as a school in 1931. The Spaso-Transfiguration Cathedral was closed in 1934. In 1931, the monastery's economy was handed over to 'Product Processing' for a vegetable sovkhoz. In April 1933, a decision was made to demolish the remaining buildings for the construction of a power station, and by May 1934, the territory was cleared. Archimandrite Ioannikiy was arrested in 1932 and sentenced to three years in prison; he later lived in Morshansk, where he was arrested again in 1937 and shot.

The destruction of the monastery's necropolis began soon after the revolution. In 1925, the cemetery was officially closed, and in the 1940s-60s, all gravestones were removed, buried in trenches, or used to make crafts. In the 1950s, when new buildings began to be constructed, piles sank into burial vaults. Then, with the help of machinery, the area was cleared for a pit, and half-decayed coffins were taken to a swampy place. In the remains of the burials, crosses, icons, and jewelry were found. The monastery's bell tower and wall stood the longest, which were finally destroyed in the mid-1970s during the construction of an administrative building.

The territory of the monastery was gradually occupied by various organizations, including the emergency services bus depot and the Kuznetsk furniture factory building. In 2002, this building housed the architectural and creative workshop 'Dabor', which is engaged in church construction. Its leader, architect Dmitry Alexandrovich Borunov, decided to establish an Ascension prayer house here in memory of the destroyed monastery. The first liturgy was held here in 2005. In 2006, the gravestones of A.N. Arapov, D.K. Gevlich, M.A. Saburova, and the Zagoskys were discovered and moved to the territory of the 'Dabor' workshop.