Here, as the chroniclers tell us, at the
touch of St. Honorat, burst forth a stream of living water,
which a recent historian of the monastery declares a greater
miracle than that of Moses; here he destroyed, with a touch of
his staff, the reptiles which infested the island, and then
forced the sea to wash away their foul remains. Here, to please
his sister, Sainte-Marguerite, a cherry tree burst into full
bloom every month; here he threw his cloak upon the waters and
it became a raft, which bore him safely to visit the
neighbouring island; here St. Patrick received from St. Just the
staff with which he imitated St. Honorat by driving all reptiles
from Ireland.
Pillaged by Saracens and pirates, the island was made all the
more precious by the blood of Christian martyrs. Popes and kings
made pilgrimages to it; saints, confessors, and bishops went
forth from it into all Europe; in one of its cells St. Vincent
of Lerins wrote that famous definition of pure religion which,
for nearly fifteen hundred years, has virtually superseded that
of St.
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