This monastery was founded in 1620, under the Benedictine rule, with an endowment by Erasmo Cicala. The church was erected at the site of a prior church and monastery that had been razed by the 1693 earthquake. The earthquake putatively killed 15 or the 28 nuns. The complex is dedicated the St Agatha of Sicily, patron of Catania and to whom over a half-dozen churches in town are also dedicated.