The aristocratic convent, which in the meantime has also been proven to be a Cistercian convent, was finally attached to the Benedictines of the Bursfeld Congregation in 1502 under Abbess Elisabeth von Wertheim (1477–1525). Most recently, the abbess Maria Engelberta von Rothenhausen presided over the convent, who had the monastery church decorated in the baroque style in 1758. In the course of secularization, the monastery was dissolved and handed over to the Electoral Chancellor Karl Theodor von Dalberg. In 1807 he donated the Aschaffenburg clerical seminary from the monastery's former property. In 1812 Schmerlenbach became its own parish with an attached correctional center for clergy. Georg Scheiblein (1766–1840) became the first director of the correctional facility. After the monastery was dissolved in 1808, the buildings were used by farmers until the 1970s. After that, the farming family Werner and Hedwig Eckert built a farm with a farm shop not far from the monastery.
The deceased from Winzenhohl are buried in the former monastery cemetery, right next to the church.
In 1982 the complex became the property of the Diocese of Würzburg. Including numerous new buildings, the educational and retreat center "Maria an der Sonne" was opened in 1985. Since then it has been cared for by Pallottines.
After extensive refurbishment and renovation, from 2017 to 2019, the church was reopened on March 24, 2019, on the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. Bishop Franz Jung from Würzburg consecrated the new altar designed by the artist Madeleine Dietz from Landau.