Reports of the coming of the Messiah…

Reports of the coming of the Messiah in the person of Sabbatai, and his prophecies, vision and miracles, sweep across Europe.

Messianic fervor engulfs all classes of Jews in both the Ashkenazic and Sephardic communities.

In April 1666, an Englishman reports to London from Florence that many families of Jews have come to Leghorn (Livorno) from Rome, Verona and Germany to “mbarque to find their Messiah”.

Leghorn’s Jewish community is just one of the many to send an envoy to Smyrna to pay homage to “our king.”