Medjugorje, Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina · 1981–present
On a hillside in what was then Yugoslavia, on June 24, 1981, six Croatian young people — three girls and three young men, ranging in age from ten to sixteen — began to report visits from a beautiful young woman who said she was the Mother of God. The visions, by the testimony of the seers, have continued in some form for more than four decades. The Holy See has not yet declared the apparitions supernatural in origin, but in 2024 it formally recognized the spiritual fruits of Medjugorje and authorized the pastoral life of the parish to flourish. Millions of pilgrims have come.
Six Young People on Apparition Hill
On the late afternoon of June 24, 1981 — the feast of the birth of Saint John the Baptist — Mirjana Dragićević and Ivanka Ivanković, two teenage friends, were walking back from the village of Bijakovići toward Medjugorje when they saw a luminous figure on the hill of Crnica. They were frightened. The next day they returned with friends — Marija Pavlović, Vicka Ivanković, Jakov Čolo, and Ivan Dragićević — and all six saw the figure together. She was, they said, “Gospa” — Our Lady — and she addressed them in their own Croatian language.
For decades, by the testimony of the visionaries, Mary continued to appear. Daily for some, monthly or annually for others. She spoke of prayer, fasting, conversion, peace, and the Eucharist. She gave to the seers messages and what they have called “secrets” — events still concealed. She asked the world to return to the Rosary, to the Mass, to confession, and to fasting on bread and water on Wednesdays and Fridays.
The Holy See has investigated Medjugorje at length. In 1991, the Yugoslav Bishops’ Conference declared that supernatural origin could not be confirmed. In 2019, Pope Francis authorized official pilgrimages to Medjugorje. In September 2024, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a “Nihil obstat” — recognizing the abundant spiritual fruits of Medjugorje (millions of conversions, vocations, healings, and returns to the sacraments) and authorizing the pastoral life of the parish to flourish, while leaving the question of the apparitions themselves open. Pilgrims continue to come from every nation.
The Sanctuary Today
The little parish of Saint James in Medjugorje, built before the apparitions for a much smaller community, has become the heart of one of the most-visited pilgrim sites of contemporary Catholicism. The hill of Crnica — Apparition Hill — and the higher Mount Križevac with its great cross are climbed barefoot by pilgrims who pray the Rosary and the Stations of the Cross on the way up.
The parish offers many Masses each day, in many languages. Confession is heard at all hours by a permanent international rotation of priests — Medjugorje is sometimes called “the confessional of Europe.” The Eucharistic adoration in the evening fills the great open-air sanctuary with silence. Whatever the final judgment of the Church on the apparitions, the lives changed at Medjugorje have been counted in the millions.
A Prayer at Medjugorje
Mother of Medjugorje,
Gospa of the Croatian hills,
you who have asked of the world
prayer, fasting, and peace —
give us the courage to do all three.
Let our Rosary not stop where convenience ends.
Let our fasting reach the part of us that does not yet love.
And let your peace begin in our own family
and spread to the war that we, on the news, have stopped praying for.
Mother of every seer young and old, pray for us. Amen.
Live from Medjugorje
The Parish of Saint James, Medjugorje, broadcasts daily Mass, the Rosary, and Eucharistic adoration. The evening prayer program — Rosary, Mass, and adoration — is one of the most-watched daily Catholic broadcasts in the world.
Visit & Learn More
- Parish of Saint James, Medjugorje (official): www.medjugorje.hr/en
- Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medjugorje_apparitions
Journey with Mary: A Path to Jesus 