ILE ST. IfONORAT. 229 



The He St. Honorat was called by the Romans 

 "Lerlna". St. Honoratus came from his hermitage in the 

 Esterel to this island in the beginning of the fifth century. 

 ■He found it, so the legend runs, full of poisonous snakes 

 which made it impossible to live there. But the Saint 

 pronounced a great anathema over the snakes and they 

 were destroyed. He climbed up a Palm tree and, at his 

 entreaty, the sea came and washed the snakes awa\'; he 

 prayed to (rod and out of the ground a spring gushed 

 forth. St. Honoratus was soon joined b\' Caprasius, the 

 old man ^^-ho in later times was also honoured as a Saint. 

 Followers came from all parts, and the monastery then 

 established soon gained a considerable reputation. There 

 St. Vincent, one of the most promine-nt monks of Lerin, 

 wrote the "Commonitorium" against heres)', a work which 

 is often cited in our times in controversies about the 

 dogma of infallibility, particularly the following sentence : 

 '•What has been believed by all, ever}-\\here and always, 

 that is truly catholic". To this monaster\- also belonged 

 vSt. Tlilarius, who, like St. Honoratus, Fater became Bishop 

 of Aries: likewise St. Maximus, who held the see of 

 Frejus; then Faustus, Bishop of Reji, who is reckoned 

 among the Saints, but whose orthodoxy was very much 

 doubted; then St. Salvian, St. Valerian and the two sons 

 of St. Eucharius; St. \"eranius, St. Salonius and man\- 

 others. From the little island Lerina, which was named 

 St. Honorat after the founder of her monastery, no less 

 than twelve archbishops, twelve bishops, twelve abbots 

 and four monks were canonised. "Oh blessed hermitage. 

 Oh thrice happy island that hast trained so many sons 



