HUBERT or Hugubrecht, “the Bright-witted ”), St, bishop of Liège, was son of Bertrand, duke of Guienne, and held a prominent place in the court of the Frankish king Theodoric, and afterwards in that of Pippin of Heristal. He was passionately fond of the chase, but with the death of his wife Floribane all his taste for mundane enjoyments disappeared, and following the counsels of his friend and teacher, Bishop Lambert of Maestricht, he retired to the monastery of Stavelot, whence he afterwards undertook a pilgrimage to Rome, on occasion of which he was by pope Sergius I. appointed bishop of Tongern. In 708 he succeeded Lambert in the see of Maestricht and Liege, to whose memory he erected a cathedral in the latter city. His death occurred in 727, and in 825 his remains (which, it is alleged, suffered no decay for many years) were removed to a Benedictine cloister in the Ardennes, which thenceforth bore his name, and ultimately became a considerable resort of pilgrims. St Hubert’s day is November 3, but the date and circumstances of his canonization are not stated. His 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 beaming cross or crucifix, has frequently been made the subject of artistic treatment. He is the patron of hunters, and is also invoked in cases of hydrophobia and demoniac possession. 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....