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.