The accounts of Antony’s and Augustine’s lives were both written with a focus on religious aspects. Beyond this, there is little similarity between the two. The life of one was led very differently from the life of the other, starting with their individual conversions and continuing through the rest of their lives. While both works are considered biographies, usually Antony’s is more biographical than that of Augustine. The fundamental message conveyed in each is the same, but the technique used to express that message is different. So not only are the two biographies different in content, but also in form and the amount of concern placed upon their fundamental message.

Antony’s conversion to Christianity from his previous paganism was quick and seemingly easy. It was done in one day at the young age of “about eighteen or even twenty,” (Life Ant. 2) when Antony heard the gospel being preached in a church. Upon hearing the command, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven,” (Life Ant. 2), Antony immediately stepped outside and gave away most of his possessions. He sold others and then donated the money to the poor; some things he saved for his sister. For whatever reason, Antony returned to the church immediately, heard, “Do not be anxious about tomorrow,” (Life Ant. 3), and once again went outside, this time to sell off all of his remaining possessions.

In one fell swoop, Antony heard the truth, believed it, and acted upon his new belief. While it is possible that less value was placed on material possessions in Antony’s time than is now, it was still no trivial thing to rid oneself of everything that one owned, including money. To further illustrate the seriousness of Antony’s actions upon converting, he put his only sister in a convent before setting out on his own to become a monk. This would also not have been a trivial thing to have left his only remaining family member in the care of strangers, even devoutly religious ones, or to have left his home to live in the wilderness.

Augustine’s conversion, by stark contrast, was a long and arduous journey which was plagued by much self-doubt and at times something close to self-loathing. “I was deeply disturbed in spirit, angry with indignation and distress that I was not entering into my pact and covenant with you, my God, when all my bones were crying out that I should enter into it and were exalting it to heaven with praises,” (VIII.19). He was greatly disturbed to hear of Antony’s quick conversion and could not understand why an uneducated person could accept Christianity when Augustine, a highly educated and intelligent person, could not. Augustine was in his early thirties before he experienced his conversion, and he had been trying to find truth since his youth. Even when considering this alone, it seems a very long time, but when it is compared with the one day in which Antony both discovered truth and converted his will to accept it, the length of Augustine’s conversion process seems a great deal more noteworthy.

Since Antony became a believer earlier on in his life than Augustine did in his, Antony had more time to act out his beliefs and less time to commit great sins that only a nonbeliever would usually do. Even if this had not been the case, Antony’s childhood was very mild-mannered; Antony was a very obedient child who never did greatly immoral acts. In fact, all of Antony’s life was lived closer to Christian ideals, even before Antony became a Christian.

Augustine’s childhood was much more interesting than Antony’s, if only because it was so much less mild-mannered. In describing his youth, Augustine used phrases such as, “my past foulnesses and carnal corruptions,” (II.1), “I was burning to find satisfaction in hellish pleasures,” (II.1), and “clouds of muddy carnal concupiscence filled the air,” (II.2). Antony, on the other hand, had his childhood described with phrases like, “not frivolous,” (Life Ant. 1), “he did not pester his parents for food of various and luxurious kinds,” (Life Ant. 1), and “all his yearning… was for living, an unaffected person, in his home,” (Life Ant. 1).

No details are given by Athanasius about any misdemeanors that Antony may have committed as a young man; Augustine does not scrimp in providing such information about himself. With Antony, we are greeted with a few short, sweet paragraphs about the time before his conversion and then the rest of the biography covers his life as a “God-loved” (Life Ant. 4) convert. The better part of Augustine’s autobiography, oppositely, covers his life as a pagan and it is only toward the end of the novel that we encounter a redeemed man at peace. A small example of this is that, while several paragraphs are spent describing what Augustine’s “miserable soul coveted,” (II.12) (namely, a few pears), which was just one incident in the youth of Augustine, only mere sentences describe the entire youth of Antony. Such illustrates the quality of Antony’s early years as being unremarkable in their benignity.

Demons play a large part in both biographies, although they are of very different natures. While Augustine struggles with inner demons that everyone must face, even today, Antony struggles with literal demons that would be very foreign to Christians in modern-day America. Augustine’s demons were his own fears, insecurities, and moral dilemmas; they had no tangible form. Antony’s demons are so tangible that they “whipped him with such force that he lay on the earth, speechless from the tortures,” (Life Ant. 8). One might think this is a metaphor representing the same types of demons with which Augustine dealt, but Athanasius provides details that make that unlikely. “The friend came the next day… and seeing [Antony] lying, as if dead… [the friend] picked him up and carried him to the Lord’s house.” The appearance of demons in Antony’s biography even goes so far as to say that Antony once met Satan himself.

Augustine’s autobiography ends with his beliefs about certain things, such as the nature of time, that are not reflections upon his life but viewpoints that seem to be have been thrown in after Augustine had said all he wished about his life. Antony’s biography, though, tells the story of Antony’s life and ends when that story is complete. There are no quasi-articles inserted at the end that describe viewpoints held by either Athanasius or Antony.

This is a notable difference between the two biographies because it implies that the purpose of each work might be different. This is quite true, too, as Augustine’s biography reads more like an extended fable by Aesop than a true biography. He conveys just enough of his life to illustrate the point he is trying to get across concerning how a person should live. Had Augustine wanted to narrate the story of his life, he would have included more information about the vital details, such as his son. As the story is now, however, it reads as though the message that Augustine wants the reader to obtain from the story is of the ideal life. That is, a life led with God as the focal point, a life led according to Christian beliefs and dogma.

Antony’s biography conveys the same message but to a lesser degree. It is almost as though Augustine is pushing his message upon the reader, while Antony’s story is tugging the reader along by the nose in the right direction. Both works guide the reader into seeing the benefits of a Christian life, but one does it with a more forceful manner than the other. Antony’s story is mainly intended to be a biography, detailing the life and times of Antony; the Christian message is a subordinate theme. Augustine’s story, while called a biography, is mainly intended to lead others to the truth as Augustine knows it; here, the biographical part is a subordinate theme. Had Augustine’s message been more clearly and fully gotten across without any mention of his own experiences, he may have written it much differently than he did.

So it is that the larger purpose for the writing of each man’s work is different from that of the other work. Augustine wished to motivate future pagans to convert to Christianity while Athanasius wished to describe the inspiring life of a devout Christian. However, the two works are very closely tied due to the content of the biographical portions of each: the story of a single man’s conversion from heathenism to enlightenment.