He ran La Chaîne d'Union, a journal founded in 1864 in London by exiled Freemasons, and still the oldest Masonic journal in print. His epitaph keeps only that title and records his birth in a vanished notation: “10 7bre 1818”, for 10 September.
The story
An administrator and a freemason: two things the republican nineteenth century readily put together, the lodge supplying the civil service with a share of its staff and of its convictions.
Born in 1818, Eugène Hubert crossed the second half of the century and died in 1897, the year the Dreyfus affair began to tear the country apart.
His epitaph runs to one title and two dates — “rédacteur en chef de la Chaîne d'Union, 10 7bre 1818 – 8 juillet 1897”. “7bre” is the old abbreviation for September, still met with on nineteenth-century stones.
The grave
The title stands in for a biography, on two lines of the avenue Transversale No. 2: “Eugène HUBERT, rédacteur en chef de la Chaîne d'Union, 10 7bre 1818 – 8 juillet 1897” — editor-in-chief of the Chaîne d'Union. “7bre” is the old abbreviation for September, the seventh month of the Roman calendar, still met with on nineteenth-century stones alongside 8bre, 9bre and Xbre. The review he edited, La Chaîne d'Union, had been founded in London in 1864 by freemasons fleeing Napoleon III; it appears still.
On site, do not miss
The inscription gives his title and his date of birth the old way: “editor-in-chief of the Chaîne d'Union, 10 7bre 1818” — 10 September, in the notaries' abbreviation.
Visitors' questions
Where is Eugène Hubert's grave at Père-Lachaise?
In Division 82, Transverse Avenue No. 2, eleventh row. The inscription runs to two lines and mentions only one role. Division 82 is also home to Fulgence Bienvenüe, the designer of the Paris Métro.
Fulgence BIENVENÜEWho was Eugène Hubert?
The editor-in-chief of La Chaîne d'Union, a review of Masonic, philosophical and symbolic studies. It is the only title the stone grants him.
Léon JOUHAUXWhat is <em>La Chaîne d'Union</em>?
A Masonic review founded in 1864 in London by exiled French Freemasons fleeing the authoritarian regime of Napoleon III. Its name refers to the “chain of union” formed at the close of a Masonic meeting. Despite several interruptions, it is still published today.
Victor SCHŒLCHERWhat does “10 7bre 1818” mean on Eugène Hubert's gravestone?
10 September 1818. “7bre” is the old abbreviation for September, the seventh month of the Roman calendar; it still turns up on nineteenth-century gravestones, alongside its siblings 8bre, 9bre and Xbre for October, November and December.
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