Fr. Dom Roscioli has been making homemade wine for a long time. After he was diagnosed with cancer, he saw this hobby as a way to serve people and share about the saints, so he started his own winery: Holy Spirits Wine.
"Our mission is to make people aware of how good they are," he shares.
Video Transcript
Grapes & Saints
Father Dominec Roscioli: Well, I've always made wine at home, in the basement, in the same cellar my grandpa Roscioli made wine. And so, we always grew up with homemade wine.
So I was ordained in 1974, and I was in parish work and hospital work for the first 10 years. And then I got cancer in my lymph system — Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, stage three.
After being diagnosed with cancer, Father Dom could no longer serve at a parish. Without a flock, Father Roscioli had to find other ways to serve. So, Father Dom started his own winery, Holy Spirits Wine.
Father Dom: I've always believed that my flock would be whoever God sends into my life. I notice as the younger generation left the neighborhood, the saints got left behind, so I've been on a mission to bring the saints back into people's lives and back into their homes. So, I came up with the idea to put saints on labels for wine.
Each bottle of wine helps fund charities for young people with cancer.
Father Dom: Part of our proceeds go to Next Step with Paul Newman's camp for kids with cancer in Connecticut.
I think people relate to saints, because they're so ordinary, doing extraordinary things. We're like God’s vines. We're actually making wine with the fruits of our labors. And at the end of the day, at the end of your life, are people going to say, “He or she really made a good wine”? Or are they gonna say, “That was like drinking vinegar”?
Young people are called to do extraordinary things — which I think they already do for their friends — and they have the ability to be that superhero or heroine that's needed in the world today. If the wine will help young people to do that, praise God.
Our mission is to make people aware of how good they are.
