[MR] St. Hubert of Liege

Garth Groff and Sally Sanford mallardlodge1000 at gmail.com
Sat Dec 16 02:27:11 PST 2017


Noble Friends,

Lacking any important anniversaries today, I rolled the dice (so to
speak) and came up with St. Hubertus of Liege (aka St. Hubert in
English), one of the more interesting Catholic saints of the early
middle ages.

St. Hubert (5656-727) was a noble who was addicted to the chase.
According to his Life, on one of his hunts Hubert encountered a stag
with a cross glowing between its antlers. A voice then told him to
lead a holy life or burn in Hell. Hubert then renounced his noble life
and became a pupil of St. Lambert. Hubert eventually entered holy
orders, rising to be Bishop of Maastricht, and later Bishop of Liege.

Following his death, Hubert was venerated as a saint. His remains were
initially buried in Liege, but later moved to the Abbey of Amdain (now
Saint-Hubert, Belgium). His shrine became a popular pilgrimage
destination until his remains disappeared during the reformation.

St. Hubert is the patron saint of hunters and other forest workers, as
well as a patron of archers (a portfolio shared with the better-known
St. Sebastian).

You can read more about St. Hubert at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubertus . Hubert's deer appears on the
arms of the municipality of Hollola (see "Gallery" at the bottom of
the page), which looks more like a moose, but then moose are a type of
deer. Also note the in-text painting "The Exhumation of St. Hubert in
the Church of St. Peter at Liege" by Rogier Van der Weyden.

St. Hubert's alleged horn is in the Wallace Collection:
http://www.wallacecollection.org/whatson/treasure/17 . Whether this is
the real horn is debatable, since another is held at a church in
Belgium. So maybe he had two?

The horn is reproduced in miniature as a pilgrim token. These are sold
by Revival Clothing:
http://www.revivalclothing.com/pewterhuntinghornofsthubertbadge.aspx
or Fettered Cock at http://www.fetteredcockpewters.com/page_badges.htm
and by Billy and Charlie at http://www.billyandcharlie.com/signa.html
.

Finally, St. Hubert's Rangers is a club dedicated to costumed medieval
hunts: http://hawken1911.wixsite.com/sthubertsrangers . Their site is
worth exploring, if for nothing more than their great garb.

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge


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