By: Jay Sorgi
When you shop for extra virgin olive oil from Sciabica Family Olive Oil and Gourmet Foods in Modesto, it might run you about $44 per liter at retail value.
The value of the Mission Variety extra virgin olive oil that owner Daniel Sciabica has donated to the Diocese of Oakland for the last quarter century? Try priceless.
That’s because those liters of olive oil, crushed from olives gathered from the groves owned by the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose, are blessed during the Chrism Mass of Holy Week and then shared as Chrism oil throughout 82 parishes to be sacramentally shared upon the foreheads and hearts of Catholics across the East Bay.
Sciabica quotes Psalm 52:10-11 to explain his vocation to create and offer the yearly donation: “Like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God, I trust in God’s mercy forever and ever.”
“That’s what goes through my mind.”
Gathering and crushing olives, and then bottling and selling high-quality olive oil has been in the Sciabica family for more than a century. Sciabica’s ancestors immigrated to America from Marsala, Sicily, and started their company in 1936 – somewhat mirroring the pathway of the Franciscans who came to California.
“I called Dan, and he just said, ‘Sister, get your olives harvested, bring them over, and I’ll take care of the rest.’ And then he proceeded to pray with me for 20 minutes on the phone.”
Sister Jane Rudolph of the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose
“When they established Mission San Jose [in Fremont], one of the first things they did was plant agricultural products for use in the mission, but not only for use physically but also sacramentally,” Sciabica explained. “Of course, the first things they planted were olives brought originally from Spain.”
Those olives, first grown in lower California, were brought north and became a new variety: the Mission Valley Olives.
Sciabica first donated extra virgin olive oil to the Catholic Diocese of Stockton.
“Bishop [Merlin] Guilfoyle gave a talk at one of the confirmation classes about the holy Chrism that was being used at the ceremony. Afterwards, I got in touch with him and I said, ‘Bishop Guilfoyle, we produce California extra virgin olive oil, and we’d be happy to donate it to the diocese for the use of the Mass of the oils,’” Sciabica said.
“Of course, he took me up on it, and we’ve been doing it every year since.”
He now offers his and his family’s time and talent to help the Dominican Sisters harvest, crush and bottle that same extra virgin olive oil to sell at their annual holiday boutique fundraiser.
But a yearly donation of about 26 gallons also goes for three much more important purposes.
“Chrism oil is used for the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, holy orders and for the consecration of altars and churches,” explains Sister Jane Rudolph of the Dominican Sisters.”The Oil of Catechumens is used to anoint those who will enter the Church by preparing them for baptism, and blessed oil is used for in the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.”
Sister Rudolph reached out to Sciabica about 25 years ago for assistance in harvesting their olive grove.
“We had [another] arrangement for our olives to be harvested to be crushed, and that fell through,” she explained.
“And so I called Dan, and he just said, ‘Sister, get your olives harvested, bring them over, and I’ll take care of the rest.’ And then he proceeded to pray with me for 20 minutes on the phone.”
When one talks with Sciabica, it’s apparent that his life exudes God’s love. He recognizes how his own calling of creating olive oil connects to Jesus’ greatest gift of sacrificial love.
“When Jesus our Lord had the Agony in the Garden, the tradition was that that garden at Gethsemane – and in Hebrew, Gethsemane means “olive press” – that that friend of Jesus was an olive oil producer because he had an olive press in his garden of olives. There’s a lot of tradition I feel I’m part of, because we’re an olive oil producer.”
Sciabica sees himself as an extension of how God uses the physical part of our world to bring about eternal life for all of us.
“Olive oil is a connection to the spiritual world. And that gives me goosebumps.”
And gives countless East Bay Catholics the gift of the Spirit.