- Usually very popular with tourists, the island of Saint-Honorat, off Cannes, is deserted during confinement.
- On site, the 20 monks of the Lérins Abbey rediscover a nature that "rests and lives again".
- But the religious are also worried about the economic consequences of the health crisis on their stocks of wine.
Usually, with masses and the exploitation of their vines, the life of the Lérins monks is also punctuated by the influx of many tourists in search of spirituality and heritage. However, confinement requires, on the forty hectares of the island of Saint-Honorat, fifteen minutes off Cannes, the ball ovens classified as historic monuments, the five chapels and above all the fortified monastery and the Abbey of Notre Dame. of Lérins from the 11th century have been deserted. Unheard of during this Easter period.
Since the beginning of March and the rise of the coronavirus epidemic, maritime service has been "interrupted", recalls the abbey website.
"The confinement means for us that we are isolated on our island with for all external contact the few employees who continue to come to work: a cook, maintenance employees and those of the vineyard and the cellar", explains Father Abbot Vladimir Gaudrat in an email sent over the weekend to give news. The Cistercian community of Lérins "is doing well" and "carries in [its] prayers" those who are "affected by this epidemic", he says.
"Nature rests and lives again"
The situation allows at least the 20 monks of Saint-Honorat to rediscover their living environment. "We take full advantage of our island and of the surrounding silence which is wonderful," comments the prelate. “Nature rests and lives again. It's been a long time since I had heard the song of so many different birds, ”he also explains.
The Easter celebrations, which usually bring many believers to the island, will remain virtual this year. A handful of videos of monks, facing the camera, deliver a series of “meditations” for Holy Thursday, Friday and Saturday. In one of the YouTube publications entitled “Living with yourself under the gaze of God”, Brother Marie also evokes confinement which is “a bit of a forced cloister”.
"All our customers are closed"
At the same time, the economic consequences of the health crisis are also felt on the side of the abbey, which lives mainly from its wines. "The hardest part with the coronavirus is selling," says the concerned father-abbot of the monastery. "All of our professional customers, the cellars, the restaurants, are closed, starting with our own shops, the boutique and the La Tonnelle restaurant," he says.
But the monks will continue the work in their vineyards where "the disbudding continues" and where "the first treatments, always organic, start with spring". "If we do not want to sink, we will have to ensure a good harvest," breathed the religious. "In the cellar, we are waiting to be able to bottle," he also explains. "First consequence of the health crisis", the monks were not delivered in bottles.
Health
A drone will "disinfect" the streets of Cannes ... The city goes further despite the advice of the High Council of Health
Culture
After a false start, green light for the "first underwater museum in France" off the Lérins Islands
- Religion
- Isle
- Covid 19
- Containment
- Coronavirus
- Nice
- Cannes