Hubert of Ardennes: The Story of a Universal Legend

Hubert of Ardennes – The Story of a Universal Legend

by Jean-Marie Doucet

In 2025 and 2027, the town of Saint-Hubert will celebrate its patron saint. Three commemorations will be the focus of the festivities: the 1,200th anniversary of the transfer of the body of Saint Hubert from Liège to Andage (825), the 1,300th anniversary of his death (727), and the centenary of the former abbey church of Saint-Hubert being granted the title of basilica (1927). To mark the occasion, the Piconrue – Musée de la Grande Ardenne is reissuing this book, written by the late Jean-Marie Doucet in 2011. This new edition, which features an updated bibliography, has been made possible thanks to the support of Jacques Charneux, an honorary member of the museum, the Basilica of Saint-Hubert and the Royal Society for History, Art, Archaeology and Heritage Conservation ‘Saint-Hubert d’Ardenne’.

An epic knight, a godless huntsman converted upon seeing a marvellous stag, a provider of game and a healer of rabies, the mythical founder of the City of Liège, of which he was the ‘first’ bishop… Saint Hubert occupies a prominent place in the collective imagination. His legend speaks to a great collective fear – that of rabies – and to a controversial passion: hunting. It took shape in the Middle Ages, in Liège and in the Ardennes forest. It subsequently spread through word of mouth, in writing, and above all through images, to many countries. So much so that the stag with a cross, the emblem of its hero, is now part of the universal bestiary. This book has set itself the aim – and this is a first – of recounting the history of this hagiographic saga and its extraordinary spread, first across Europe and then throughout the world, from the 8th century to the present day.