The monastery of Lips has been identified with certainty with the Fenari-lsa Camii (Mordtmann, Millingen, Makridis, Janin). It is a building complex composed of the church of the Theotokos Panachrantos (the Immaculate Mother of God) the church of St. John the Baptist and the funerary chapel.
The first church, consecrated to the Theotokos in 908, was built to the north of the site by Constantine Lips, a high official in the service of Leo Vl the Wise (886-912) and later of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (913-959)-Constantine of Lips, first spatharius and domesticus of the service, the present anthypatus patricius and great hetaeriarch, according to Constantine Porphyrogenitus (G, 184, 370).
The name of Constantine is recorded in a fragmentary inscription on a cornice of the east wall of the church. In the late 13th century, Theodora, consort of Michael Vlll Palaeologus (1261-1282) erected south of the church of the Theotokos a new church dedicated to St. John the Prodrome and further south a small funerary chapel. She also restored the hospice built by the founder, which was by then in ruins.

The monastic complex of Lips, also called by some historians monastery of the Panachrantos, after its first church of that name, was an imperial convent for ladies with a chapel intended for burials. Excavations conducted by Theodore Makridis in 1929, unearthed 32 tombs, including those of the Empress Theodora herself and of her daughter Eudocia. General information on the monastery is provided by the authors of Theophanes Continuatus who note that the convent of Lips was near the church of the Holy Apostles, by George the monk who gives a description of the consecration ceremony and states that the convent stood in the Merdosaggary quarter, and also by George Cedrenus, Leo

lt also has along the south and west sides a wide rectangular peristylar ambulatory, which probably extended along the north side too, where it is now destroyed. In both churches, and particularly in that of the Prodrome, the east side is a true work of art. The alternating tripartite arched windows and blind niches, the elaborate brickwork decoration of toothed bands and meander friezes, the interplay of red brick courses and white ashlar blocks, lend plasticity to the surfaces and lighten the volume of the structure.
The complex suffered severe damages by fire in 1622 and 1917. After the first fire the Turks removed the columns and built large pointed arches. They also reconstructed the roof and raised the two domes.After 1917 the monastery remained in ruins for many years and was systematically restored in the last twenty years. The south wall has preserved traces of mosaics. The Archaeological Museum of Istanbul houses a fine marble incrustation work portraying St. Eudocia, discovered during excavations by Th. Makridis.