Toussaint-Dieudonné Sauveur

Toussaint-Dieudonné Sauveur (1766-1838), Professor of Pathology, Hygiene and Therapeutics at the Faculty of Medicine, is the first Rector of the University of Liège. At the time, the University had 259 students. The rector's office was held for one year, on a regular rotation between the four faculties: Medicine, Science, Law, Philosophy and Letters.

Born and died in Liège, Toussaint-Dieudonné Sauveur completed his early studies with the Oratorians in Visé, then Paris, before teaching at the congregation's colleges in Juilly, then Angers. He continued his medical studies in Paris during the revolutionary period, attending courses given by Portal and Corvisart, before taking refuge in Utrecht, where he obtained his diploma in 1793. On his return to Liège, he was employed at the Hôpital Saint-Abraham, before being appointed professor at the Lycée Impérial. In 1806, he was one of the founders of the Société des sciences physiques et médicales de Liège.

In 1816, he was commissioned by the King of Holland to take part in the drafting of the Belgian Pharmacopoeia, before being appointed President of the Medical Commission of the Province of Liège the following year. Appointed professor at the University of Liège as soon as it was founded, he was the first to hold the position of rector, a position he held again in 1829-1830.

Extrait du discours du 25 septembre 1817

L’Université de Liège ne sera sûrement pas la moins empressée à porter son tribut à la masse des connaissances humaines, ce trésor qui est la légitime propriété de tous, et où chacun a le droit de puiser dès qu’il en a la volonté.

Discours prononcé par le recteur Sauveur le 25 septembre 1817 lors de l’installation solennelle de l’Université de Liège dans Alphonse Le Roy, Liber Memorialis…, Liège, Vaillant-Carmanne, 1869, p. 58-60.

His teaching encompassed pathology (general and internal) as well as hygiene and therapeutics. Proclaimed emeritus in 1835, following the reorganization of course curricula, he continued to run his private practice until his death in 1838.

Under Dutch rule, the College of Curators was in fact the University's principal authority, not the Rector. According to the 1816 regulations, the College was to oversee the strict application of the latter and of higher education legislation more broadly, including teaching matters, the curators proposing new professors to the government, and the budget. The Governor of the Province and the Burgomaster were members of this College, but no professors. It was abolished by the Belgian regime later, in 1835, and replaced by a civil servant with fewer powers.
Philippe Raxhon, Mémoire et prospective. Université de Liège (1817-2017), Presses universitaires de Liège, 2017, p. 32

Back to the list of Rectors

Go to : Jean-Michel Vanderheyden

Illustration: Van Der Haert, after Barthélemy Vieillevoye, T.D. Sauveur, Docteur en Médecine, premier Recteur de l'Université de Liège, lithograph, s.d., Musée Wittert ULiège, inv. 2943.

updated on 4/30/24