Little is known with any certainty about Saint Hubert. He is thought to have been a missionary in the forests of the Ardennes who became bishop of Tongres-Maastricht and later of Liege. He became patron of hunters and trappers in the Ardennes.
He has had associated with his life a legend which is also applied to Saint Eustace. According to this legend he was converted by the sight of a stag in the forest which had a crucifix between its antlers; see the painting by the studio of the Master of the Life of the Virgin ('Saints Augustine, Hubert, Ludger (?) and Gereon (?)'). The stag is the saint's attribute. He died in the year 727. His body was subsequently exhumed twice and found to be miraculously preserved. The second exhumation is depicted in a work from the workshop of Rogier van der Weyden ('The Exhumation of Saint Hubert').