Life of Brother Jeremiah (1)

Written by Br. Francesco Saverio Toppi in 1983, in occasion of the beatification

Introduction

Brother Jeremiah was born in "Walachia Minor", a region corresponding to the actual Moldavia, in Romania. (accessing the following link you will find a map in order to make an idea about the region: http://www.celendo.ro/HartiRegiuniIstorice/Moldova_Regiune_Istorica_Romania_Celendo.jpg).

At the age of 18 he left his country to go to Italy, where he lived untill death.

He obeyed God's voice, who adressed to him, as well as to Abraham, through some kind of internal experience, stimulated by the convergence of some external signs.

He told his brothers, several times, that he had been determined to make this step by his mother's words about Italy: a special country, where there were good Christians, where all the friars were saints and where there was the pope, Christ's curate on earth.

He also told that, one day, going to the market place to sell the fruit from his lands, he met an old beggar to whom offered his victual and who told him: You will travel beyond the mountains, towards south, in the country called Italy. You will have a long journey and you will have to suffer a lot. But don't worry, because nothing bad is going to happen to you. Arrived at the end of your journey, you will get a job near a very great master, you will serve him with a great love and you will be rewarded with great generosity.

He was a young peasant, he didn't know neither reading, nor writing; he was only speaking his vernacular, he didn't know the way to go, he was devoid of any middle or any clear plan, at the moment of leaving his country and family to go to Italy.

Did he leave at his mother's suggestion?

Did he decided this after the prediction of the old beggar? We consider that, because of his temper, modeled in the field working, in a healthy realism, this was a too vague and insufficient indication for a so important choice.

The one who gave him so much power of decision and so much ability of resistance couldn't be other than God. He talked him to the heart, using his mother's words and the old beggar's ones. It was about a decision arisen from a great love and he has done all his best to realize it.