Hubert

Hubert (Hucbertus, Hugbertus), ST (d. 727), bishop of Liége, whose festival is celebrated on the 3rd of November. The Bollandists have published seven different lives of the saint. The first is the only one of any value, and is the work of a contemporary. Unfortunately, it is very sparing of details. In it we see that Hubert in 708 succeeded Lambert in the see of Maestricht (Tongres), and that he erected a basilica to his memory. In 825 Hubert’s remains were removed to a Benedictine cloister in the Ardennes, which thenceforth bore his name (St Hubert, province of Luxemburg, Belgium), and ultimately became a considerable resort of pilgrims. The later legends (Bibliotheca hagiographica latina, nos. 3994-4002) are devoid of authority. One of them relates, probably following the legend of St Eustace, the miracle of the conversion of St Hubert. This conversion, represented as having been brought about while he was hunting on Good Friday by a miraculous appearance of a stag bearing between his horns a cross or crucifix surrounded with rays of light, has frequently been made the subject of artistic treatment. He is the patron of hunters, and is also invoked in cases of hydrophobia. Several orders of knighthood have been under his protection; among these may be mentioned the Bavarian, the Bohemian and that of the electorate of Cologne.

See Acta Sanctorum, Novembris, i. 759-930; G. Kurth, Chartes de l’abbaye de St Hubert en Ardenne (Brussels, 1903); Anna Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, i. 732-737 (London, 1896); Cahier, Caractéristiques des saints, pp. 183, 775, &c. (Paris, 1867).

(H. De.)

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