Bosnia and Herzegovina, Medjugorie - a pilgrimage town

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The first historical records of Medjugorje date back to 1599. This "intermountain" town, as the name suggests, was a place of cultivation and production of wine, tobacco or fruit. Medieval tombstones and buildings from the Roman period have been discovered near the town. Over time, Medjugorje was part of both the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, during whose reign a rail link was built from Mostar to the Adriatic coast, greatly improving connections with the outside world. A Catholic parish was founded here in 1892 and was (and still is) dedicated to the Holy Apostle James. The local population is predominantly Bosnian Croats, with only a negligible proportion of Bosnians or Serbs.

From a quiet little town in 1981 to the present day, it has become the third most important apparition site in Europe, visited by more than a million pilgrims every year. It all started on 24 June on the Hill of the Apparition (Podbrdo), where six young people (the visionaries) saw a woman with a child in her arms who gestured for them to approach her, but out of fear they did not. Subsequently, in the early evening of June 25, four of them felt that they had to go to the place to which the woman with the child was calling them. They did so and there was an encounter, a conversation and a prayer with Our Lady. From that day on, the visionaries had daily apparitions wherever they were. The main message of this secular encounter was peace, faith, conversion, fasting and prayer.

Since the apparition took place in the then communist country, it did not take long for the visionaries, their parents, friends and pilgrims to be pursued by the police. Many were even imprisoned or tortured for their faith.

Interestingly, in 1984 the Yugoslav bishops forbade Catholic parishes to organize pilgrimages to Medjugorje. During the so-called Bosnian War, Medjugorie remained in Croatian hands, then in 1993 it became part of the Republic of Croatia, but the Dayton Agreement in 1995 incorporated the town into the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

2019 was also an important historical milestone, when the Vatican officially approved pilgrimages to Medjugorje. Until then, priests were not recommended to participate in pilgrimages to this place, or at least not to mark them as pilgrimages.

At present, pilgrims in Medjugorje go to two places, namely the already mentioned Hill of Apparitions, where a rather steep path leads and on its top there are bronze reliefs of scenes from the prayer of the Rosary, and at the site of the apparition there is a statue of Our Lady Queen of Peace, similar to the one in front of the Church of St.James the Apostle.

The sacral church, built in 1934, is the second place and at the same time the centre of the Eucharistic and prayer life of the town. Behind the church there is also an outdoor altar, "surrounded" by more than 5,000 seats or two dozen confessionals. It is no wonder that Medjugorie has earned the nickname "the confessional of the world". The Bishop of Mostar oversees the pilgrimage site.

Every year Medjugorie hosts the Youth Festival (Mladifest), which takes place at the end of July and the beginning of August and is attended by up to 50,000 people. Outside of this period you will meet hundreds or thousands of pilgrims from all over the world, so it is very difficult to choose the "right" time to visit. In any case, the pilgrimage site, this time only a place of prayer, not of revelation (official approval is pending), is a territory of peace and reconciliation, which is so much sought nowadays. It is a territory of peace and reconciliation, which we seek so much these days.

GPS: 43°11'24.3"N 17°40'37.0"E

Text: Oskár Mažgút

Photos: Pixabay.com, Wikipedia.org - CJ (2)