UGO, bishop of LINCOLN, saint. — Carthusian, born ca. 1140 at Avalon in Burgundy, died in London on 16 November 1200. A religious at the priory of Villard-Benoît and ordained a priest, he was made prior of the dependent «cell» of St-Maximin. Then, with the prior of Villard-Benoît, he visited the Grande Chartreuse, where he was received as a novice, took his vows, and was appointed procurator.
In 1180, at the request of King Enrico II, U. was sent to England as prior of the first English charterhouse at Witham in Somerset. In May of the same year, a Council of bishops at Eynsham, convened by the King, chose him as bishop of Lincoln, and he was consecrated at Westminster Abbey on 21 September 1181. An energetic reformer, he maintained austere discipline and resisted the oppressors of the poor; he excommunicated the first royal forester and refused to install an undeserving courtier as a benefice-holder of Lincoln. Summoned to Woodstock, through wit and good humour he overcame the angered King, who admired his courage. In 1188 he was sent as ambassador to France by King Enrico. On his return, in 1189, he attended the coronation of Riccardo I. A staunch supporter of justice, he defended Galfrido, archbishop of York (1194–95), and protected the Jews against popular fanaticism and unjust accusations. In 1198 he resisted the justiciar Hubert Walter, who wanted the bishops to provide the King with knights for foreign wars. In 1198 U. appeased the angered King at Château-Gaillard in Normandy. Sent once again on an embassy to France in 1200, he revisited the Grande Chartreuse and died while returning to England. In 1220 U. was canonized by Onorio III. His extremely rich reliquary, a destination for pilgrims, was plundered by Enrico VIII. Feast day: 17 November.
St. U. was also an architect. The rebuilding of Lincoln Cathedral is due to him (it had been damaged by an earthquake in 1185). Of the Saint’s work, four bays of the choir remain, a beautiful example of Gothic architecture.