Augustine in His Own Words (continued)
in full view of the crowd of believers), an offer was made by the presbyters to Victorinus—Simplicianus said—to do it privately. It was customary to make this concession to such people as seemed likely to be frightened by embarrassment. However, he preferred to profess his salvation in the sight of the holy congregation. For what he taught as a rhetorician was not productive of salvation, yet he had professed that in public. How much less, then, had he to fear Your meek flock when he uttered Your word since he was not afraid of crowds of madmen when uttering his own words? Thus, when he got up to make his profession, everyone who knew him and all the people whispered his name among themselves with murmurs of thanksgiving. Who was there who did not know him? From the mouths of those gathered rejoicing together, there resounded the sound of a suppressed shout: "Victorinus! Victorinus!" Quickly they applauded in exultation at seeing him, and quickly they fell into an intense silence in order to hear him. He proclaimed the true faith with admirable confidence, and all experienced the desire to snatch him to their hearts. This they did with love and joy, for these were the hands by which they caught him up.36
Antony and Early Monasticism
Augustine's decisive conversion was catalyzed by the story of the Egyptian hermit Antony (d. 356), one of the pioneers of Christian monasticism. The Life of Antony, authored by Athanasius (d. 373), the much-exiled bishop of Alexandria, is one of the classics of Western spirituality and did much to popularize monasticism in both the Greek East and the Latin West.37 Augustine recounts how in August 386 he and his close friend Alypius spent the summer break at a villa outside Milan. There they heard Antony's story from a fellow African, Ponticianus, who worked in the government. Ponticianus went on to tell them how several members of the imperial intelligence service were converted to monasticism from reading Antony's story. From Confessions, Book 8:
(6.14) So on a certain day (I do not recall the reason why Nebridius was away), a man named Ponticianus came to visit me and Alypius at our house. He was a compatriot of ours in the sense that he was from Africa, and the holder of an important position at court. I do not remember what he deredditio symboli ("handing back of the Creed"). That ceremony is what Augustine alludes to here. On this, see Harmless, Augustine and the Catechumenate, 274–86.
36. Conf. 8.2.3–2.5 (CCL 27:114–16); trans. Bourke, FOTC 21:198–202. 37. On the Life of Antony and early Egyptian monasticism, see William Harmless, Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), esp. 57–104; Columba Stewart, "Anthony of the Desert," in The Early Christian World, ed. Philip F. Esler (New York: Routledge, 2000) 2:1088–101.