Medjugorje — the apparitions on Podbrdo, 1981

OVERVIEW

Medjugorje ('between mountains') is a Croat town in Herzegovina, 200 m above sea level with a mild Mediterranean climate. Since 1981 it has been a Catholic pilgrimage site because of Our Lady of Medjugorje, a purported series of apparitions of the Virgin Mary to six local children, which some believe are still happening. More than a million people visit each year.

HISTORY

On 24 June 1981 around 6:30 pm, Ivanka Ivanković (15) said she saw the shimmering silhouette of a woman in brilliant light on Mount Podbrdo; her friend Mirjana Dragičević (16) scoffed, then with Milka Pavlović (13) and later Vicka Ivanković (17), Ivan Dragičević (16) and Ivan Ivanković (20) all said they saw it. The six told the Franciscan parish priest, Father Jozo Zovko, who was at first sceptical. The author T. K. Rousseau notes that the visions began days after Orthodox Serbs marked the 40th anniversary of the Ustaše killings of Serbs at Šurmanci.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

DISPUTED. Since 2019 pilgrimages are authorised as long as the events are not assumed to be supernatural; in September 2024 the Vatican formally endorsed 'prudent devotion' to the Virgin at Medjugorje but made no declaration that the apparitions took place.

VISITING

A pilgrimage town: the first apparitions were reported on Mount Podbrdo, and St James's is the parish church. The pin marks the town.