The Museum of the Serbian Church is first mentioned in archival documents from the first half of the XIX century. In 1851, at the episcopal conference in Vienna, Patriarch Josif Rajačić requested that the Serbian National Museum be established, which the Austrian authorities did not allow. The same request was repeated in 1870.
Metropolitan of Serbia Petar Jovanović appealed in 1856 to the priesthood of the Principality of Serbia to collect "Serbian painted works" in order to open the "Serbian Museum". From collected icons and artistic paintings, it was founded in the premises of the Belgrade Metropolis, an art gallery, in 1858. In 1868, this collection was transferred to the Belgrade National Museum.
Metropolitan of Serbia Mihailo continued work on collecting church valuables, but they were deposited in the National Library and the National Museum.
After him, Metropolitan Inokentije Pavlović proposed in 1899 to the Holy Archbishop Council to determine a certain amount of "from church funds for copying images of all those metropolitans of Serbia, whose paintings can be found, and thus to establish a gallery of metropolitan paintings at the Metropolitanate Serbia ".
In 1927, the Holy Archbishopric of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) decided to draft the Ordinance and to enable each diocese to establish its own church museum and library.
At the beginning of 1937, conditions were created for the re-establishment of the Museum of the Serbian Church by concluding a contract between the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Serbian Orthodox Church on the lease of Konak knot Ljubica in Belgrade for fifty years, for the needs of the Museum's accommodation. In the beginning of 1940, cabinets for exhibition of museum exhibits were purchased, and the opening of the museum's premises was foreseen for October 1940. The newly born pre-war opportunities hindered the realization of this idea, and in June of the same year, all the staff of the Church Museum were relieved of their duties. In 1942, Dr. Radoslav Grujic was re-appointed as manager of the Museum and remained in that position until 1948 when he was succeeded by prof. Svetozar St. Dusanic.
