Lerins Abbey

Lerins Abbey is a Cistercian religious community on the island of Saint-Honorat, one of the Lerins Islands, on the French Riviera, with a dynamic devout group.

There has been an ascetic group there since the fifth century. The development of the present cloister structures started around 1073. Today the priests develop vineyards and deliver wine and alcohol.

The island, referred to the Romans as Lerina, was uninhabited until Saint Honoratus, a follower of a neighborhood loner named Caprasius of Lerins, established a cloister on it sooner or later around the year 410. As indicated by custom, Honoratus made his home on the island expecting to live as a recluse, however got himself joined by devotees who shaped a religious group around him.