Karol Wojtyla, better known around the world as Pope John Paul II, spent much of his early manhood in pursuit of a career in the theatre. Although his chief interest was acting, he also wrote plays. His work grew out of his experiences with Mieczysaw Kotlarczk and the Rhapsodic Theatre, a group that performed in secret during the Nazi occupation of Poland as a way of preserving their national literature. The group strived to create a uniquely Polish theatre, a "theatre of imagination, a theatre of the inner self," and those qualities remained at the core of Karol Wojtyla's plays.

Jeremiah was written during 1940, in the evenings after Wojtyla had spent his days as a laborer in the quarries. The play combines an idealistic view of Poland's role in history, as introduced by Adam Mickiewicz and other 19th Century romantic poets, with a realistic look at the actions and events that led to the country's captivity. Featuring his protagonist, Father Piotr Skarga, Wojtyla mixes elements of the Old Testament with 16th Century Polish History to create a truly national drama.