Since the monastery of Lérins was famous already in the second decade of the 5th c., it is generally acknowledged that Honoratus founded it somewhere between 400 and 410.
Honoratus was most probably ordained presbyter by his friend Leontius, bishop of neighbouring Fréjus (mentioned for the first time AD 419, died in 433).
Hilary writes about Honoratus and his brother Vincentius that, even before Honoratus' presbyterial ordination: "Their life at that time was, as it were, a lay episcopacy. I should deceive you, if it is not true that many bishops, by the welcome they received from them, learned how to extend a welcome" (Priuatus quidam iam tunc in conuersatione eorum episcopatus gerebatur. Mentior nisi plurimi episcoporum didicere ab illis, dum excipiuntur, excipere), Vita Honoratii 9.4 (ed. Valentin 1977: 112, trans. Deferrari 1952: 368-369).