The Lérins Islands are a group of four Mediterranean island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

s off the French Riviera

French Riviera

The Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...

, near Cannes

Cannes

Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....

. The two largest islands in this group are the Île Sainte-Marguerite

Île Sainte-Marguerite

The Île Sainte-Marguerite is the largest of the Lérins Islands, about half a mile off shore from the French Riviera town of Cannes. The island is approximately 3km in length and 900m across....

 and the Île Saint-Honorat

Île Saint-Honorat

The Île Saint-Honorat is the second largest of the Lérins Islands, about a mile off shore from the French Riviera town of Cannes. The island is approximately 1.5 kilometers in length and 400 meters wide....

. The smaller Îlot Saint-Ferréol and Îlot de la Tradelière are uninhabited.

Administratively, the islands belong to the commune of Cannes.

The islands are first known to have been inhabited during Roman times.

The Île de Saint-Honorat bears the name of the founder of the monastery of Lérins, Saint Honoratus

Honoratus

Saint Honoratus was Archbishop of Arles.There is some disagreement concerning his place of birth, and the date of his death is still disputed, being according to certain authors, January 14 or January 15. It is believed that he was born in the north of Gaul and that he belonged to an illustrious...

. It was founded around the year 410

410

Year 410 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year after the Consulship of Honorius and Theodosius...

. It is in this monastery that Saint Porcarius

Saint Porcarius

Saint Porcarius , known as Saint-Porchaire in French, was a Benedictine monk, governed the abbey of Lérins, off the coast of the French Riviera, at a time when the monastery included over 500 residents.According to tradition, around the year 732, Porcarius was warned by an...

 lived and probably was killed during an invasion by Saracens. According to tradition, Saint Patrick

Saint Patrick

Saint Patrick was a Romano-Briton and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognized patron saint of Ireland or the Apostle of Ireland, although Brigid of Kildare and Colmcille are also formally patron saints....

, patron of Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, studied there in the fifth century.

A fortified monastery was built between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries. The monastic community today lives in a monastery built during the nineteenth century.

The Île Sainte-Marguerite held a fortress where The Man in the Iron Mask was held captive for a time.

In 1707 the Lérins were occupied by the English navy, under the command of Sir Cloudesley Shovell ,while blocking the military port of Toulon to help the army of Victor Amadeus II duke of Savoy and his cousin Eugene besiege that city.The French navy sank itself.

Under the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

, the Île Sainte-Marguerite and the Île Saint-Honorat were renamed the Île Marat

Jean-Paul Marat

Jean-Paul Marat , born in the Principality of Neuchâtel, was a physician, political theorist, and scientist best known for his career in France as a radical journalist and politician during the French Revolution...

 and the Île Lepeletier, after secular martyrs.

Islands

Ile St Marguerite (St Marguerite Island)

It only takes a 15-minute boat ride from Cannes to get there but it took The Man in the Iron Mask 11 years to leave this tiny, forested island. The mysterious individual was believed to be of noble blood, but his identity has never been proven. His cell can be visited in the Fort of St Marguerite, now renamed the Musée de la Mer (Museum of the Sea). This museum also houses archaeological discoveries from shipwrecks off the coast of the island, including Roman and Saracen ceramics. There is a regular boat service from the mainland. Guided tours in English are available in summer.

Musée de la Mer
Ile Ste Marguerite

Admission charge.

Ile St Honorat (St Honorat Island)

Cistercian monks are the only inhabitants of the smaller, southern St Honorat Island. Monks have inhabited the island more or less continuously since AD410 and, at the height of their powers, owned Cannes, Mougins and Vallauris. Medieval vestiges remain in the stark church, which is open to the public, and in the ruins of the 11th-century monastery on the sea’s edge. The monks divide their time between prayer and producing red and white wines, honey, lavender oil and Lérina, a herbal liqueur. Although closed to the general public, the monastery welcomes guests for week-long retreats. The monks also run the only boat trips to the island, with departures from Cannes jetée Edouard.

Admission

External links

• http://www.abbayedelerins.com/