Hugh was born into a noble family in Burgundy, France. His mother died when he was eight years old, and his father then entered a monastic community.

Hugh entered the monastic life himself at the age of fifteen. Around 1160, he transferred his membership from the Benedictine order to the Carthusians, who practiced a more austere form of monasticism, becoming the procurator of their major house, the Grande Chartreuse.

With reluctance, he accep…