After occupying Saigon, the French colonialists established the cathedral to serve as a place of worship for the Catholics in the expeditionary army. Because wherever they are, whoever they are, each person has their own beliefs, so do the French, they also need a place to put their spiritual faith.

The first church was built on Street 5 (now Ngô Đức Kế Street). In fact, this place was formerly a small Vietnamese pagoda that was abandoned due to war, and then it was renovated by Father Lefebvre to be spacious and clean. This was considered the first church, but there were still many shortcomings in the construction and the area was quite small, so in 1863, Admiral Bonard started construction of another wooden church on the bank of the "Kinh Lon" (i.e Large Canal) (now Nguyễn Huệ Street), which was then the location of the Court of General Affairs during the Republic of Vietnam and is now the Sun Wah building. The church was completed in 1865 and was originally called Saigon Church. Because it was made of wood, it was damaged by moisture and insects, and the Saigon Church was later demolished. and finally rebuilt at the location at Công Trường Công Xã Paris (present location).