Today, the monastery and the village are called Lešje, while the medieval form of the name, as mentioned in the written sources, was Leštije, which means the place abounding in hazelnut shrubs. The local people, however, speak of a traditional story, which says that the monastery, uncertainly when, got its name in the rememberance of the corpses (ser. leševi) of the martyrs who died there.

Written historical sources about the monastery show that the ruler Vukoslav, at his property in the wasteland of Petrus, erected the church of the Mother of God between 1355 and 1369 as his legacy. He and his sons Držman and Crep bestowed the church and a part of the property to the monastery of Hilandar on 15^th October 1360. However, the landed estate and the church of the Mother of God of Petrus, was, through careless attention of the Hilandar flock, brought to the ''ultimate neglect''. Consequently, Crep and ''Old Dionisius'' (Držman's ordained name), asked King Uroš to grant them the return of their estate, and their request was granted. Following the death of the Old Dionisius (between 1375 and 1379/80), who undoubtedly successfuly administered the monastery and its numerous flock, the inhabitans of Hilandar asked for the return of their former property. The outcome was that patriarch Jefrem judged in favour of Crep, and this was confirmed by the Jefrem's successor, patriarch Spiridon, and finally king Lazar himself.

In the mayhem following the collapse of the state in Kosovo, it seems that Hilandar somehow got into possession of the monastery ''Leštija''. The son of Crep, Venedikt, initiated a new dispute, which was, upon the advice of the Patriarch and council of Metropolitans, the abbot and aristocrats, resolved in his favour by Despot Stefan in 1411.

Venedikt was the abbot of Lešje for a long time. In 1452, there were reports that despot Djuradj Branković appointed “the abbot of Lešje kir Venedikt”, an individuality of exceptional respect and confidence, as a member of the group of emissaries who went to the sultan to ask for the permission to transfer the relics of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke to Serbia. At the beginning of 1453, Venedict also administered the arrival of the relics from Rogos to Smederevo. A description of this event was preserved and it shows that the relics were carried through the State. It is not unlikely that, even for a short period of time, the relics stayed in Lešje during the procession.

During Venedikt Crepović's time, the monastery of the Mother of God in “Leštije” was the cultural and spiritual centre in close connexion with the mount Atos. We also know that Venedikt stayed at the mount of Atos and he had one of the John Chrysostom's Šestodnev translated for him by the monk Jakov, while he himself translated the other one “in the glory to God and the Immaculate Mother of God of Leštije”. Venedict left Lešje after he had been appointed the Metropolitan of Gračanica and Novo Brdo. After the fall of Novo Brdo, despot Djurdj Branković granted him in 1456 the lifelong administration of the monastery of Vraćevšnica, and after the fall of Smederevo in 1459 he retired to the mount Atos in the monastery of the Holy Paul where he passed away and where he was burried.

Historical sources show that Crep also had a daughter, nun Anisija. We know wery little about her. As for her brother Venedict, we know only her ordained name, and that she passed away in 1426/27. The breviary of the monastery Velika Lavra at the mount Atos mentiones the nun Anisuja, “the daughter of the blessed Cerp who fasted in Serbia amongst her own communion”. We cannot establish from here whether she lived in Lešje, where her brother was the abbot, or whether she stayed as a nun in some other nunnery in Serbia.

In the medieval manuscripts connected with the monastery we can find the terms Petrus wasteland and the desert of Leštije.

This place was considered to be called a desert because it was, supposedly, according to the folk tradition, “almost fully” covered with sand. However, it has been shown that although there are numerous rocky, craggy and uninhabited places in Serbia, none was dubbed a desert, except for those which were proven to be inhabited by hermits. We must understand that the use of the name “the desert of Leštije” was used in connexion with the monks who lived there during the 14^th and 15^th century, and perhaps even earlier than that. The hermits went away to their ascetic cells in the vicinity and they came to the monastery on certain days of the Holy Liturgy.

An inscription in a panegyric revelas that “in the desert of Leštije”, upon the wish of despot Stefan Lazarević, the monk Jovan wrote. He belonged to the order of Sinaits. We know that the monks of the sinaite order, due to their solitary life, used to extensive practice the writing and transcription of books. Accordingly, Lešje also had a scriptorium, where an intensive practice of transcribing manuscripts probably took place, as was customary in many other monasteries in Serbia during the reign of despot Stefan Lazarević. After leaving Lešje, “kir Jovan” moved to the monastery known as Stjenik, where he continued his strict monastic ordeal of living in a cave. However, immediately after his martyring death in 1462 he was venerated by the local people as a holy martyr. The miraculous relics of the Saint Jovan of Peštje are situated in the monasterial church in stjenik, helping all people who come to them with faith and prayer to the present day.