Born in France, the Carthusian monk first became prior of Witham in Somerset. In 1186 Hugh was made Bishop of Lincoln, which was then an enormous diocese reaching from the river Humber to the Thames, and he took prime responsibility for rebuilding Lincoln Cathedral after a great earthquake had demolished much of it the previous year.   After his death in London he was canonised by Pope Honorius in 1220.   In 1280 his relics were enshrined in the Angel Choir of the Cathedral.   Numerous miracles were said to have taken place at the shrine, and after Canterbury, it became the most visited site of pilgrimage in Britain during the middle ages.

The cult of relics, miracles and saints was an important source of income to the cathedral and surrounding town, and Hugh contributed much in both life and death.   Such was his personal commitment to the power of relics that he is reputed to have bitten into, and ingested, the supposed bones of Mary Magdalene.