Although there are no reliable data on construction of the monastery it is assumed it was build in a place of remains of an older church dating from the 14th century during the rule of Prince Lazar. The monastery got it name after a monk, Roman Sinait, who had lived here and whose grave could still be found in the monastery. St. Roman is also know as a place where Russian noblemen, Nikolay Nikolayevich Raevsky, was buried and whose life served as an inspiration for the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy for his character of count Vronsky in the novel “Anna Karenina”.