This church was mentioned for the first time in a document in 1280 as St. Antun (Anthony), a hospice of the Benedictine monastery St. Peter from Supetarska Draga. It was restored in the 16th and the 18th centuries after the miraculous event of 1556 when the cross began to weep. It was because of. as contemporary records say, bawdy and immoral life of the people of Rab. This episode bizarrely overtook the people and very soon the Confraternity of the Weeping Holy Cross was founded, a brotherhood that in time grew in number and became increasingly influential. A song that was sung about the event. "Štujmo braćo" ('Brothers, let us honour"), written in the vivid "Čakavica" dialect of Rab, was probably composed in the middle of the 18th century by the bishop Luka Garanjin of Rab. a descendant of a very famous family from Trogir.

In the second half of the 18th century the main monumental altar was erected along the back wall of the sanctuary. It was made of multicoloured marble in the Venetian late-Baroque forms with the so-called palo portante (tall planks bearing a painting). Originally, it contained the weeping terracotta cross, which was lost in the beginning of the 20th century. Because of its outstanding value the painting was attributed to the great artists of the Italian settecento (18th century) such as G.B.Piazzeti. F. Benković and others. It has only recently been attributed to the original artist. Giovanni Scajari.

The peak of its renovation is the stucco decoration on the ceiling of the sanctuary with the representation of the Holy Trinity in the skilfully modelled high relief in the central part. The scenes from Christ's life are shown within the oval medallions in the comers: the Prayer on the Mount of Olives, the Flagellation, the Entombment and the Resurrection. This work was done in 1799 in the Classisistic manner by two stucco manufacturers, brothers Giacommo and Celemente Sommazzi who came from, what is known today as, the Swiss region of Ticino.