Guardian Angels can trace its history back to 1842, when the
explorer Jean Baptiste Faribault invited Fr. Augustin Ravoux
to establish a mission among the Dakota community in what
would become the town of Chaska.
In 1858, the Benedictine Fathers decided that the Chaska community
was large enough to support a church. This new church was completed
by the year 1860 and was a simple, small brick building with planks on blocks of wood that
served as pews. Upon completion, the congregation had difficulty choosing a name, so they
decided to have a parishioner’s two-year-old daughter look at pictures of saints and select one.
She chose the picture of the guardian angel, and so the church was named Guardian Angels.
In 1885, construction began on the present church site on a new building, an imposing brick
structure with a steeple 162 feet high. On October 7, 1902, disaster struck when an early
morning fire destroyed the church and toppled the steeple. By 5 o’clock that afternoon, all
that remained were the four charred brick walls and a picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help,
blessed by Pope Pius IX in 1871. This picture remains in the church to the present day.