Honoratus

Honoratus was born into a distinguished consular family in northern Gaul during the second half of the fourth century. His relatives remained attached to the old Roman religion, but Honoratus and his brother Venantius embraced Christianity. Desiring a life of greater perfection, the brothers left their home in the company of a holy man named Caprasius and set out for the East, hoping to visit the famous monastic settlements of Greece and the Levant. Venantius died on the way, and Honoratus, after remaining for a time abroad, returned to Gaul.

Upon his return he sought a remote place in which to live as a hermit. He chose a small island in the Lérins group, lying off the coast of Provence near present-day Cannes. The island was then deserted and reputedly infested with serpents. There, in the first decade of the fifth century, Honoratus gathered disciples and established a monastery that quickly became renowned throughout Gaul. Lérins Abbey served as a school of asceticism and learning; many of its monks were later chosen as bishops. Among those associated with the community were Hilary of Arles, Eucherius of Lyon, Lupus of Troyes, and Vincent of Lérins. The island itself later received the name Île Saint-Honorat.

In 426 or 427 the clergy and people of Arles, whose bishop Patroclus had been assassinated, elected Honoratus as their metropolitan. He left Lérins with reluctance to take up the burdens of the episcopate. Arles was at that time a politically and ecclesiastically important city, the seat of the praetorian prefect of Gaul. Honoratus governed the church of Arles for only a short time, maintaining the austere habits of a monk even as bishop.

He died in Arles in 429. His kinsman Hilary, who had been a monk at Lérins and who succeeded him as bishop, delivered a funeral oration that constitutes the earliest and most important biographical source for Honoratus. From an early period Honoratus was honored as a saint. His feast day is observed on 16 January in the Roman Martyrology. The monastery he founded continued to flourish for many centuries and remained a significant center of monastic life in southern Gaul.