About Medjugorje
Watch this excellent introductory video produced by Stella Mar
Medjugorje is a small town, not far from the Adriatic coast, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is nestled between Croatia and Montenegro and is about 150km southwest of the nation's capital, Sarajevo. The word 'Medjugorje' literally means 'between mountains'. Pilgrims come to know the significance of Mount Krizevac (Cross Mountain ) and Crnica (Apparition Hill).
In 1981, in the small village of Medjugorje, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to six children (referred to as "visionaries"). The messages given to the visionaries by “Our Lady of Medjugorje, Queen of Peace” have stressed the importance of faith, prayer, fasting and conversion as a way of attaining both individual and world peace. In Her own words, Our Lady tells us, "I have come to tell the world that God exists. He is the fullness of life, and to enjoy this fullness and peace, you must return to God".
Since the apparitions began in 1981, approximately 40 million people of all faiths, from all over the world, have visited Medjugorje and have left spiritually strengthened and renewed. Many pilgrims return home with stories of miracles in the form of healings (of mind, body and spirit), supernatural visual signs, and deep conversions back to God.
Medjugorje is a gift from God who has given the world Our Lady the Queen of Peace to guide us on our earthly journeys.
More than 40 years after the first apparition, Our Lady continues to appear in Medjugorje and this small village has now become the third most visited European pilgrimage site, after the other Marian shrines of Lourdes in France and Fatima in Portugal.
History of Apparitions in Medjugorje
On June 24th, 1981. At about 6 pm, when six young people - Ivanka Ivanković, Mirjana Dragićević, Vicka Ivanković, Ivan Dragićević, Ivan Ivanković and Milka Pavlović, saw on the hill called Crnica, several hundred metres above the place called Podbrdo, a young woman with a child in her arms, who gave them a sign with her hand to come nearer. Surprised and scared, they did not approach her.
The next day, June 25th, 1981, at the same time, four of them: Ivanka Ivanković, Mirjana Dragićević, Vicka Ivanković, and Ivan Dragićević, felt strongly drawn towards the place where they had seen the person the day before which, they had recognised as Our Lady. Marija Pavlović and Jakov Čolo joined them. The group of Medjugorje visionaries was formed.
They prayed and spoke with Our Lady. This is why June 25th is celebrated as the Anniversary of the apparitions. According to the testimony of the visionaries, from that day onwards, they had daily apparitions, together or separately, wherever they were. Milka Pavlović and Ivan Ivanković never saw Our Lady again.
Attracted by Our Lady’s apparitions and messages, people – first the parishioners and then from other villages and from all over the world – started to gather and pray.
Thanks to Our Lady’s apparitions, Medjugorje – a simple village parish – became a place of gathering for a multitude of pilgrims from the whole world (in the first 20 years, more than 20 million), and one of the biggest prayer centres in the world, comparable to Lourdes and Fatima. Innumerable witnesses say that, precisely in this place, they have found faith and peace.
The parishioners and the pilgrims have to become witnesses of Our Lady’s apparitions and messages first, and then, together with the visionaries, join her in the realisation of the plan of the conversion of the world and its reconciliation with God.
Source: Medjugorje Apparitions - Medjugorje WebSite
