Hidden for years from the public eye by Romania's former communist regime, the lepers of Tichilesti on the Danube Delta have continued an ancient tradition of wine-making stretching back to the Middle Ages.For more re modern-day lepers see this post from last year re the book In the Sanctuary of Outcasts.
Now the St Lazarus Leper Wine - named after the patron saint of sufferers of the disease - is being sold world-wide to raise funds for the community and its remaining residents...
Although leprosy sufferers are now no longer forced to live in the colony, most have been cut off from their old lives for decades.
Their property was seized under the Communist regime and lepers were even forbidden to use money in case coins and notes they handled spread the disease. Their old homes were sealed off, possessions burnt, and families and friends told to forget them forever. Even today there are no street signs leading to the community...
Whenever anyone was discovered suffering from leprosy they were seized by Securitatea – the feared secret police – and stripped of their property and their rights...
"Many of the residents are now very old and the sale of Leper Wine will help support their community and lifestyle and ensure that the tradition of caring for each other continues at Tichilesti..."
You can purchase the product at this link. (I wonder if the referring link was intentionally being ironic in describing it as a "full-bodied" wine...)
Via Nothing to do With Arbroath.
Just bought a bottle.
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