The church is actually called the "Church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary". In 1635, after acquiring land, plots of land and huts, the Franciscan monastery of Vilnius established its branch in Valkininkai and housed six Franciscan priests in wooden houses who began their work. They founded a monastery at this location in Wolkeninken (lit. Valkininkai, Polish: Olkieniki). Previously, this town, which had over 1,000 inhabitants at the time, had received a town seal under Magdeburg law. Wolkeninken was by far the largest town in this region at the time. After the construction of the church was completed in 1787, Pope Pius VI granted it a general indulgence. By this time, the construction of the monastery was probably completed. A plan of the Franciscan jurisprudence with all the buildings of the monastery complex has been preserved from 1797. After the church and the monastery burned down due to lightning, both were rebuilt from 1822 to 1837 and the church as we see it today was created. The monastery was active until 1832. On September 10, 1832, by the supreme decree signed by Tsar Nicholas I, the monastery was closed and the monks were transferred to the poorest monastery in Kaunas. All this was achieved by Bishop Andrius Benediktas Klongevičius, the governor of the Vilnius diocese, who agreed to the dissolution of the new and fully equipped Franciscan monastery. All the monastery's property was transferred to the warehouses of the city rectory, church supplies and other property - to the then still unfinished Valkininkai parish church. The monastery became a barracks, the monastery church became a church. The church itself was converted into a Russian Orthodox church. Church, although there were only 75 Orthodox believers in the area at the time. The Lithuanians viewed this as an act of Russification.
The church in the classicist style with a stone fence is an extremely beautiful, eye-catching building complex. The church also preserves several extremely valuable works of art, including the unique iconography of St. Francis of Assisi. The church inherited this painting from the church of the former monastery. The image of Francis of Assisi, painted by an unknown artist in the 17th century, is a work of simple composition but rarer iconography. It does not convey - as usual - any known legendary episode from the life of the founder of the order. This small painting represents the essential features of the saint's personality and the principles of spiritual teaching - virtue, humility, and the signs of the stigmata - the extraordinary grace of God. During WW I, the Orthodox Russians fled, but the church was not converted back into a Catholic church. Instead, the church was used for dancing, concerts and other events. During WW II, the monastery was used as a prison for prisoners of war (1941-43). In 1944, during the retreat of the Wehrmacht, the monastery and church were destroyed and burned down. The church was rebuilt, but the U-shaped monastery building was not. In 1946-1949, Father Stanislaus Kakarieka was persecuted and punished for catechizing children. After the monastery grounds were cleaned up in 1998, a cross carved by folk craftsman Juozas Jakštas was erected, which commemorates the times when the monastery stood on this spot.