Apparitions of Our Lady of Medjugorje

Medjugorje and the Diocese of Mostar: The Geographical Context, Podbrdo Hill, and the Villages of Bijakovići

In Croatian, the term *Bósnia* means *mountainous location* and refers to the region. The settlement, consisting of scattered villages, including Bijakovići, the site of the apparitions, is situated within a circle of hills. Today, Medjugorje represents a focal point of all values, oppositions, and misunderstandings inherent to the ambiguities of the apparitions, for the Church and the scientific world alike.

Recounting the History

This Medjugorje plateau, where so many conversions take place and where there is so much generosity, remains on the margins, despite the sympathies of over a hundred bishops, pilgrims, and even Saint John Paul II, who had expressed a desire to visit that place and had repeated an invitation to do so. We are in Yugoslavia, in the Catholic Croatian part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, under the communist Serbian rule that dominated the country.On June 24, 1981, more than a kilometer from the church, two girls, Ivanka (fifteen) and Mirjana (sixteen), citizens of Sarajevo, on vacation at their family’s country house, were walking and resting on Podbrdo Hill.On the first day of their holiday, they relax by listening to music. They bought cigarettes to try tobacco, which they enjoy together during the long summer nights. On their return, at the crossroads of the Three Roads, just outside the city, they see a luminous figure on the hill to their right, about 200 meters away. “It’s Our Lady,” Ivanka whispers, having just lost her mother. She doesn’t know. “It can’t be Our Lady,” Mirjana protests, more reflective. Fear seizes both girls, who flee. When they dare to trust what they saw, they are ridiculed. They return that same afternoon, around 6:30 PM, along with Milka (14 years old), who will take back the flock she left grazing in a scrubland 400 meters from the village. The three girls climb the hill without seeing anything unusual, but on their way back, just before reaching the village, Ivanka sees it again, while the sheep return to the fold by themselves.Something similar happens with Vicka (sixteen). A routine morning check-up in Mostar and a nap on the return journey made her miss the agreed walk with her other friends in the early afternoon. The girl sees it. Right next to her, about 100 meters away. While running home with Mary, she meets two companions: Ivan Dragičević (sixteen), carrying a bag of new potatoes, and Ivan Ivanković (twenty years old), whom she “sees” that day, but from a distance. Both boys also see it. However, Ivan Dragičević, terrified, runs away and loses his bag of potatoes by jumping over a fence. As for the older Ivan, he is perplexed and won’t see anything else. Meanwhile, the four girls—Ivanka, Mirjana, Milka, and Vicka—observe the figure from a distance: a woman who seems to be carrying a child in her right arm and appears to be waving for them to approach. But the girls dare not move.On the following day, Thursday, June 25th, five of them return: Ivanka, Mirjana, Vicka, along with ten-year-old Jakov and Maria Pavlović, Milka’s sister, who was working during the previous visit. This time, the attraction prevails. They climb the hill swiftly, despite the numerous rocks and bushes. They meet Ivan, a shy and solitary young man from a different path. Thus, the group of six visionaries is definitively formed. Here they stand at the foot of the apparition, now very close, on a small cloud just one meter above the ground. They clearly see her radiant gray-silver dress, her black, wavy hair under a white veil, and her crown: composed of twelve unconnected stars. Her blue eyes look kindly at the boys. Ivanka, the orphan, asks: “Where is my mother?” She is happy. She is with me,” her voice sweet like music or the ringing of bells, the boys specify. “Give us a sign,” Mirjana pleads, “otherwise no one will believe.”On Friday, June 26th, around 6:15 PM, an unusual light drew a large crowd, perhaps 2,000 or even 3,000 people, while the visionaries wait below, at the spot where they first saw her. As soon as they catch sight of her, they climb the hill. The crowd watches them approach. Vicka receives holy water. She sprinkles it abundantly upon the apparition: “If you are the Lady (Gospa), stay with us; if not, go away.” She smiles. “Why have you come here and what do you want from us?” Ivanka asks, “There are so many people here who believe.” “I have also come so that you may convert and bring peace to this people,” she replies.The immediate context of 1981: the first apparitions on Podbrdo Hill, the Gospa’s message, and local confrontationsThere have been numerous conflicts between the villages of Medjugorje. As a result, there have been injuries and even three deaths just before the war, at the site where the church with its two bells was built shortly after. The Gospa adds: “I come to convert and reconcile the whole world.” “Please give us a sign of your presence,” someone prays among the crowd. “Blessed are those who believe without seeing,” these words from the Gospel (John 20:29) are her only response. “What is your name?” Mirjana asks. “I am the Most Holy Virgin Mary,” she replies. Then she repeats these words, a decade before the civil war: “Peace! Peace! Peace! Reconcile yourselves.”On Saturday, June 27th, the police took the visionaries to Čitluk, a village about 2 km away, to dissuade them. But Dr. Ante Vujević declares them perfectly healthy. The boys quickly leave and make it to the hill on time: 6:30 PM.On that day, Ivan has a vision for himself, as described below.Two Franciscan friars are present during the apparition. At their request, Vicka asks the Virgin: *”What do you want the priests to do?”* “That they believe firmly in the faith and help you.” *”Why don’t you appear to everyone?”* “Blessed are those who have not seen, yet have believed” (John 20:29). At one point, she disappears and then reappears. Everyone greets her return by singing a popular song: You are all beautiful. Vicka persists: *”What do you want this people to do?”* In her third response, the Gospa says: *”Whoever does not see, let him believe as he who sees.”* It is a message of faith and peace in this village torn apart by internal divisions, and in a nation even more so.June 28, 1981 (Fifth Day): The Parish Priest Jozo Zovko and the Beginning of Parish Monitoring of the ApparitionsOn Sunday, June 28 (fifth day), the parish priest, Brother Jozo Zovko, of the Order of Friars Minor, who was on a retreat near Zagreb, returned unaware of the event and discovered it. His vicar, Brother Zrinko Cuvalo, had already recorded an interrogation of the visionaries on the parish recorder. The priest continues to methodically form his own opinion. That day, 10,000 to 15,000 people gather on the hill. A recorder captures the words of the Gospa, which the visionaries repeat slowly because they are the only ones who hear them: *”Go in peace of God,”* she says before rising and disappearing.On June 29, the police again take the visionaries, this time to the hospital in Mostar (the capital and seat of the diocese). They make the girls wait between the psychiatric hospital and the morgue. Mirjana is impressed, but Vicka is bold and smiling, saying: *”We know very well that sooner or later we will all die.”* Doctor Dzuda confirms their psychological balance. Upon their return for the apparition, the girls receive this message: *”There is only one God. Believe with strength and confidence.”*On that day, a father carried his three-year-old son who was suffering from septicemia. Early in July, the child recovered. This is the first of many miracles that will soon be recorded. In 1986, 291 miraculous cures were registered at the rectory.The police pressured the families to keep their children from going to the hill: otherwise, the parents would have problems and might not be able to return to work in Germany to support their families. But on June 30, the police sent two young women to gently propose to the visionaries that they take a car trip. The goal of this entire operation was to prevent them from returning in time for the appointed hour of the apparition.The visionaries enjoyed the trip, but as night approached, they insisted on returning.When they approach the hill, some 3 km away across the valley, the little Jacob grows restless: “If we don’t stop, I’ll jump.” The car comes to a halt. The boy runs up the hill, facing the slope where the waiting crowd has gathered, and sees, in a moment of transcendence, bridging all distances. “Would you be angry if we waited for you at church?” asks Mirjana, seeking to reconcile the apparition with obedience. “Yes,” replies Gospa, “at the same time!”On their return, they pass by the parish house where the priest interrogates them, and his words are recorded. The interrogations, preserved at the Episcopal Palace, were published in roughly two opposing versions and later reissued with greater rigor thanks to Daria Klanac. On Wednesday, July 1st (the eighth day if we count from the distant apparition of June 24th, which the visionaries consider a prelude), in the afternoon, a police car transports the visionaries. But at the moment of the apparitions, the vehicle’s bars disappear, and the boys have a brief vision.

The Interrogations of July 1981: The Persecution of the Visionaries by Communist Authorities and the Position of the Diocese

On Thursday, July 2nd, the visionaries feel persecuted, while their families feel threatened. Ruža, Maria’s sister, consults the priest and then brings the six visionaries to the rectory at 5:30 PM. There, in the absence of Priest Jozo Zovko, who was preparing for mass for which he had called the people, they have an apparition. The priest invites them to fast for three days on bread and water to pray for light and discernment. He passes the word to the young Jacob: “I asked Our Lady to give us a sign; she just nodded, affirmatively, and then disappeared.”On Friday, July 3rd, in the afternoon, Priest Jozo Zovko is fervently praying in church because the tension is high, and the Marxist dictatorship offers no concessions: “Suddenly,” he says, “I heard a voice: Go out and protect the boys.” Stepping outside, he sees them running from the fields: “The police are after you; hide!”The police, who had been pursuing them, arrive shortly after. The boys hide when the police question the priest: “Did you see six boys?” The priest indicates the direction in which they were running. The police continue on this false lead while the visionaries have their second apparition at the parish house. Gospa, overjoyed, tells them: “Do not be afraid; you will have strength to endure everything.”Saturday, July 4th, is a day of loss for the visionaries as they find themselves divided between police prohibitions and the apparition.Exhausted by the daily anguish they live, they believe they have understood that this tenth apparition will also be the last. The apparition took place within the church, the official refuge for religious freedom guaranteed by Marxist-liberal doctrine with the idea that, to avoid fearful clandestinity, it is better to concentrate that freedom in a public and controllable place. This oasis where the parish now meets with unprecedented fervor to celebrate the daily mass. The apparitions continue. Two significant events are added in July:• The parish priest enters discreetly into ecstasy along with the visionaries. Some observe him, but only reveal it later.• The parish priest invites the inhabitants of the various villages in the surrounding area, at odds with each other at that time, to peace and reconciliation, according to the Gospa’s message. The accumulated hatred dissolves through prayer. By mid-July, mutual forgiveness and warm outbursts between old enemies transform the Medjugorje Balkans into a land of unanimity and brotherhood.The sermons of Friar Jozo Zovko become increasingly inspired, yet unsuspected by the discreetly present police. Unfortunately, on July 11th, the parish priest reminds the Jewish people tested *in the deserts for forty years*: only forty years had passed since Dictator Tito took power. He was therefore preaching rebellion. He was arrested on August 17th. However, the parish is like the most fervent monastery: daily mass, rosary, fasting twice a week to bread and water despite work.It is not known what more to do for God and mutual aid. Amazing phenomena begin to occur. At the end of July, the word *mir* (peace) appears written in the sky. Someone takes a Polaroid and circulates it throughout the country. The bishop, a man of good heart, visits the parish on July 25th and then again on August 8th. Despite this, a trial is initiated against Brother Jozo. On August 9th, he is summoned by the police and intimidated. On August 17th, they arrested him and then sentenced him to a long prison term, from which he was only freed the following year, thanks to thousands of petitions from Italy.Other condemnations fall upon the Franciscans and parishioners. The communist press speaks out against the apparitions, even though Bishop Žanić responds twice. *Glas Koncila*, the Catholic Croatian newspaper from Zagreb, publishes its protest against the slander being written about the visionaries. The Church attempts to deal with all of this.Franciscan Tomislav Vlašić takes over the position previously held by Father Jozo Zovko, now imprisoned, and thus oversees the pastoral care of the parish, managing various fronts: spiritual life, calm and inspired preaching, welcoming visitors, and fostering charisms and mutual aid. Order and discretion are exemplary. Relations with the police are polite and firm. The apparitions are no longer public. They now take place in a room adjacent to the sacristy that had previously served as a storage area and has now become the *Chapel of the Apparitions* for the six visionaries, while the assembly prays without being able to see the ecstasy. Towards the end of the year, the Balkanization resurfaces. Bishop Mons. Žanić, who had previously enjoyed good harmony with the parish priest of Medjugorje, where Jozo Zovko considered him more enthusiastic than himself, reignited the conflict that has divided the Franciscan clergy (majority) and the secular clergy since 1942.The international prestige of the apparitions boosts the passions of the adversaries, causing even the slightest murmur to swell excessively. The evolution of this conflict, with its secular roots, which the devil exploits brilliantly as an agent of all divisions, has escalated to the point of making life impossible for those who have served pastorally the immense conversion and spiritual deepening movement that arose in Medjugorje. The friars continued to persevere in silence, discretion, and obedience, even as they faced a difficult and sometimes desperate situation.This eternal misunderstanding between absolute authority and the humble request of priests who are constantly replaced and paralyzed, eager to serve the charisms (prayers, conversions, fasts, self-giving, ecumenical openings), was reported in the annual chronicle of R. Laurentin (*Dernières Nouvelles de Medjugorje*, 17 vols.) and published in Austria until the author ceased this activity at the request of the Bishop of Mostar, whose benevolent resignation was confirmed in 1993 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, faithful to its role of confirming the authority of the bishops.The apparitions of Medjugorje and their continuous call to conversion, prayer, and peace fit into the spiritual horizon traced by the encyclical *Redemptoris Mater*.From John Paul II’s teachings, which present Mary as a maternal presence and guide for the Church on its journey to Christ.Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian Theology, Marian Apparitions, and a Post-Graduate program in Mariology at locusmariologicus.org.