The College of St. Catherine has received an anonymous endowment gift valued at more than $20 million, the largest in the St. Paul institution's 104-year history.

Announced Tuesday, the endowment is earmarked exclusively for the college's fledgling School of Health, which was launched in September 2007. It was awarded by a foundation that wished to remain unnamed, said Marjorie Mathison Hance, the college's vice president for external relations.

The agreement guarantees that the college will receive at least $1 million a year from the endowment, which will be held in trust. The agreement is a "perpetual legacy endowment," meaning the school will get the $1 million payments for "as long as the endowment exists," Mathison Hance said. In a typical endowment, Mathison Hance said, annual payments come from the interest earned on investments.

Though Mathison Hance would not name the donor, she said the gift comes out of an "ongoing relationship."

"Our first payment is coming yet this month," she said.

Up to this point, the school's biggest endowment came from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 2000. That amount has not been released. The college's total endowment is valued at $56.1 million.

Margaret McLaughlin, College of St. Catherine dean of health professions, said she cried when she heard about the gift. "It's a phenomenal gift," she said.

School officials said the money will help the School of Health accommodate 170 new nursing students over the next five years, launch a physician assistant program, expand other nursing programs and laboratories, and advance a team-based approach to health care involving students from different disciplines such as nursing and physical therapy.

McLaughlin said the School of Health already has 2,000 students, about 40 percent of the College of St. Catherine's total enrollment.

St. Catherine President Sister Andrea Lee announced Monday that the School of Health would be named for college alumna and former trustee Henrietta Schmoll.

Norman Draper • 612-673-4547