Medjugorje – a place of clarification in Herzegovina

It’s a beautiful place that differentiates itself through special apparitions. The village with its 4,300 inhabitants (mostly Croatian) caused an international sensation when an extraordinary occurance changed the life of the village suddenly on 24th June 1981. A small group of adolescents reported of supernatural apparitions on Crnica hill (Podbrdo). They recognized the Mother of God who asked them for peace. The Marian apparitions have since continued.

Virgin Mary, who is worshiped by the natives as ‘Gospa’ and ‘Queen of Peace’, asks believers with alternating messages to change, to fast, to pray, to confess and to repent. The information circle ‘Informativini Centar Medugorje’ reports of those messages in various languages.

Experience moving collective moments in Medjugorje

Since then, the location has an unbroken attraction to pilgrims all over the world with more than one million guests visiting and one million altar breads distributed anually. In some summer months, several hundred thousand believers receive the Holy Communion. Thus, the village and its infrastructure has changed as well. The capacity of accommodations was not sufficient and new accommodations were built. Nevertheless, there are still moments when the village is coming to its accommodation limits.

It is impressive that especially young people from all over the world arrive to Medjugorje to confirm their belief, for example during the Youth Festival. Many runners from various countries participate at the marathon ‘We run to Gospa’ between Grude – Ljubuski – Medugorje.

In the local Saint James church, which ist the centre of belief in Medjugorje, many eucharistical events, prilgrim programmes and Holy Masses are taking place in different languages. There are countless numbers of touching and stirring monents to be experienced daily on Apparition hill (where the adolescents experienced the Marian apparition of 1981) and on Križevac hill.

Medjugorje wants to help

In Medjugorje, social facilities were established. The drug rehabilitation centers ‘Village Cenacolo’ and ‘Campo del Vita’ supports young addicts to become clean. The ‘Majcino selo’ looks after preschool kids, orphans and adolescents. Pilgrims and guests with acute health issues are offered medical services by Malteser Germany. Medjugorje feels responsible not only for the spiritual but also for the physical well-being.

What Medjugorje represents is hard to explain – you need to experience it!