 In the 1850s the Benedictine Fathers made frequent visits to the Chaska area – mostly to German immigrant communities along the Minnesota River, formerly called St. Peter’s River – to determine whether a community was large enough to support a church.Minnesota achieved statehood in 1858 and during that year the Benedictines decided that Chaska was able to support a church.The congregation had difficulty choosing a name for the new church, so they decided to have Michael Guenser's two-year-old daughter look at pictures of saints and select one.