The Manavi Church of the Mother of God was built by Eptime, superior of the St. John the Baptist monastery of David Gareji. A long building inscription recounted this; it has not survived, but was published by L. Melikset-Beg. The inscription read: "In the time... of King Erekle the Second, by the mercy of Christ God, I built this holy church of the Nativity of the Mother of God... in the place of the monastery of Mravalmta, I, the archimandrite of the Baptist('s monastery), of the king... in the year of Christ 17(9)4, Georgian chronicon 482." Archimandrite Eptime served here in 1774–1798, and the date of the Manavi church's construction falls in the same period — 1794.