Jean Thierry was born on February 4, 1982 and travelled Cameroon from one end to the other, following his father, who for work reasons had to change residence every two or three years.
An inseparable companion in his unceasing mobility was always the thought of a priestly vocation, which his parents did not hinder and which enlightened spiritual direction helped to strengthen. At the age of 11, when he entered the seminary, the fundamental features of his spiritual nature were already well outlined in him: a decisive character, lively intelligence, basically irritable but ready to apologize, intolerant of every injustice, in love with prayer, all naturally led to meditation.
After middle school he chose scientific studies. Thinking that this was what could better prepare him to help his people in the social field, even in his future as a priest, which continued to be the horizon towards which he was walking. «I want to be a priest and I want to arrive pure to the priesthood», he said, more than ever jealous of his vocation, even if surrounded and courted by many girls, who instead of calling him Jean Thierry renamed him "Jean Cheri" because of his affability, his joy and his irrepressible vitality, also expressed on the volleyball fields, basketball and athletics tracks, where the stubborn and strong-willed boy gave the best of himself, at least as much as in study and in the small jobs by which he tried to help his parents make ends meet with the family budget.
His high school maturity also seemed to shine light to his vocational journey: in September 2001 he entered the novitiate of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, from which eight months later he was discharged because his vocation «did not present the characteristics of the Oblate charism». It was an authentic cold shower for him and for those who had sponsored his vocation. While telling himself there was no need «to make a drama out of it because, officially, I have not been reprimanded for anything», Jean felt all the weight of this refusal, having to return to his family, searching for a job made more difficult by the irony and mockery of some colleagues. Almost by mere chance, a nun cousin opened the way to Carmel and so he found himself in July 2003 in the monastery of Nkoabang, walking the little way of unconditional trust in God that Thérèse of Lisieux had outlined and on which Jean seemed to fly, as if it were really at Carmel that God had always waited for him and always wanted him.
Here, they were so happy with his spiritual maturity and his continuous progress that, as an aspirant, they promoted him to a postulant after just eleven months. But when he prepared to depart for the novitiate in Burkina Faso, an abscess appeared on his right knee, immediately diagnosed as a malignant tumour. Useless were the cures and chemotherapy sessions; on November 18, 2004 it was necessary to perform an amputation, which Jean faced with an extraordinary courage, stating that «After all the Lord is only asking me for the gift of a leg that is no longer needed». With the intention that none of those who approached him should leave sad, «he preferred to give joy», even when they took him to Italy, first to Legnano, then to Candiolo. He attracted young people like a magnet, everyone admired his strength and patience. On December 8, 2005, with a dispensation from Rome, he made his solemn profession in his hospital bed: he would be content to be even just a "wheelchair priest", dispenser of God's mercy and a man of prayer, but when they told him that his days were now numbered, after just a moment of bewilderment, he concluded that «I will realize my vocation in Paradise, but it will not be a rain of roses like that of Saint Therese. I will bring down a deluge of vocations on Carmel and on the Church».
He died on January 5, 2006, considered a saint.
The diocesan process on his «life, virtue and fame for holiness» was opened at the Archdiocese of Milan on the 15th of February 2013 and ended on the 9th of September 2014. On the 24th of November 2017 the decree of validity was granted.
