Hubert (d. 727), bishop of Maastricht and Liège. Details of his early life and conversion are unknown. He became the pioneer evangelist of the Ardennes district of Belgium and the successor of Lambert in the see of Maastricht in 705. In 716 he translated Lambert's relics to a church in Liège which he had built and later made his cathedral. He is therefore venerated as first bishop of Liège, while two orders of chivalry (in Lorraine and Bavaria) also claim him as their patron.

His miracles and the translation of his relics in 743 to Andain (now called Saint-Hubert) contributed to the diffusion of his cult, clearly witnessed by many calendars of the 9th century. Two churches were dedicated to him in England and the Sarum calendar eventually included his feast.

The famous episode of his conversion while hunting on Good Friday through seeing an image of the crucified Christ between the antlers of the stag is borrowed from the Acts of Eustace and is unknown before the 14th century. But from then onwards it became frequent in paintings of Hubert, as by the Master of Werden in the National Gallery, London, or in several English examples which depict him holding a book, on which (or at his feet) is a miniature stag. He is patron of huntsmen, and his supposed hunting-horn is in the Wallace Collection, London. Feast: 30 May; translation, 3 November.

Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.

• AA.SS. Nov. I (1887), 759–930; T. Rejalot, Le culte et les reliques de S. Hubert (1928); M. Coens, ‘Notes sur la Légende de S. Hubert’, Anal. Boll., xlv (1927), 345–62; id., ‘Une relation inédite de la conversion de S. Hubert’, ibid., 84–92; other studies by F. Pény (1961) and A. Paffrath (1961). See also A. Dierkens and J. M. Duvosquel (edd.), Le Culte de S. Hubert au pays de Liège (1990)