The institute was founded in 1944 by members of the Cathedral of St. Irenaeus in Paris (of the Orthodox Church of France) and by a number of French intellectuals who were not themselves Orthodox Christians - the first registrar, for example, was the French Roman Catholic philosopher, Gabriel Marcel.
One purpose of the institute was to provide theological education in the French language, as all classes at the St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris were, at the time, taught only in Russian.