K.A.V. Lovania Leuven

Katholische Academische Verbinding (K.A.V.) Lovania Leuven is a Catholic academic fraternity, founded in 1896 at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. It is a German Studentenverbindung and is an affiliated member of the Cartellverband der katholischen deutschen Studentenverbindungen. Her motto is Semper Excelsius! (Der Geist lebt in uns allen!). Its official coulours (Couleur) are green, white and red.

The Catholic university of Louvain, founded in 1425, was closed down during the occupation of the Low Countries in 1797 after the French revolutionaries occupied the country. After the defeat of the revolutionaries the university was refounded in 1834 and was able to attract quite a number of Catholic students from Germany, Austria and Switzerland who were fleeing the Kulturkampf.

At first a Swiss Catholic student fraternity was founded, Helvetia Lovaniensis. It existed from 1872 to 1875. It was succeeded by an all German Catholic student fraternity, Tungria Lovaniensis, that existed from 1877 until 1879. In 1888 a regional student fraternity was founded by students from Luxemburg. Only the last fraternity survived. Out of the ashes of the demise of the Swiss and German fraternities, a new fraternity was founded.

This event was triggered by a public allocution of Armand Thiéry (), a professor in thomistic philosophy at the university, on student life at Germanic universities on January 21, 1896. During his student years in Bonn, Thiéry had become a member of the prestigious student fraternity K.D.St. V. Bavaria Bonn, the oldest Catholic student fraternity in the world. This speech motivated a number of Germanic students to such an extent that they decided to establish a fraternity that same evening. It was called Lovania, which is Latin for Leuven (Louvain). The fraternity quickly expanded and Prof. Thiéry became honorary president. Lovania continued to blossom until the outbreak of the First World War. In 1914 the fraternity was suspended due to the commencement of fighting. At that moment the fraternity already had more than 160 active and inactive members. Numerous members died on both sides of the war.

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