A Little History
For those of you who are not familiar with what has happened at Medjugorje let me start at the beginning where Mirjana did during our visit with her. Medjugorje is a Croatian town in the mountains about 3 hours south of Sarajevo (former Yugoslavia, now broken into Bosnia-Herzcovina and Croatia). The Croatians were from Northern Europe, they believe southern Poland, and migrated to this area hundreds of years ago. They are Catholic, with Muslims and Serbian Orthodox in the surrounding areas. As you travel into this area you see the scars from the civil war of 1991-95 with bombed out buildings and bullet holes in Mostar, the largest town near to Medjugorje. There are gypsies begging for money with their children on the streets. Our guide, Mikki Mousa (Mousa means Moses, but Americans change it to Mickey Mouse sometimes) said that Medjugorje was like the Beverly Hills of the area; because of all the pilgrims their economy has greatly prospered.
The apparitions began nearly 29 years ago on June 24, 1981. Mirjana who was about 15 at the time was walking with her friend, Ivanka, out of the little village of Medjugorje along the base of the hills. Both were on summer vacation and spending the summer with their grandparents helping in the fields, etc. This day was the eve of the feast of St John the Baptist and so none were working in the fields; it was a holiday. Ivanka tells Mirjana that she thought she saw Our Lady (they call the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Gospa) up on the hillside a few hundred meters away. Mirjana did not think it possible and so made a joke of it. They had grown up under communism and so did not know about the apparitions at Lourdes, France, or Fatima, Portugal; they could not talk openly about their faith at school as they risked their parents losing their jobs or their homes. So because she disbelieved Ivanka Mirjana turned and started back to the village. But she said she felt an inner call to go back and so she did. She and Ivanka saw a woman up on the hill dressed in a long gray dress with a white veil holding a baby. Mirjana wondered how she had gotten there in this long dress carrying a baby as the hillside was all rocks! It scared them both and they ran away. Mirjana told her grandmother that she had seen the Gospa and her grandmother told her she had better repent. Mirjana spent the night in prayer but felt called again to go back the next day. To be continued...
For those of you who are not familiar with what has happened at Medjugorje let me start at the beginning where Mirjana did during our visit with her. Medjugorje is a Croatian town in the mountains about 3 hours south of Sarajevo (former Yugoslavia, now broken into Bosnia-Herzcovina and Croatia). The Croatians were from Northern Europe, they believe southern Poland, and migrated to this area hundreds of years ago. They are Catholic, with Muslims and Serbian Orthodox in the surrounding areas. As you travel into this area you see the scars from the civil war of 1991-95 with bombed out buildings and bullet holes in Mostar, the largest town near to Medjugorje. There are gypsies begging for money with their children on the streets. Our guide, Mikki Mousa (Mousa means Moses, but Americans change it to Mickey Mouse sometimes) said that Medjugorje was like the Beverly Hills of the area; because of all the pilgrims their economy has greatly prospered.
The apparitions began nearly 29 years ago on June 24, 1981. Mirjana who was about 15 at the time was walking with her friend, Ivanka, out of the little village of Medjugorje along the base of the hills. Both were on summer vacation and spending the summer with their grandparents helping in the fields, etc. This day was the eve of the feast of St John the Baptist and so none were working in the fields; it was a holiday. Ivanka tells Mirjana that she thought she saw Our Lady (they call the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Gospa) up on the hillside a few hundred meters away. Mirjana did not think it possible and so made a joke of it. They had grown up under communism and so did not know about the apparitions at Lourdes, France, or Fatima, Portugal; they could not talk openly about their faith at school as they risked their parents losing their jobs or their homes. So because she disbelieved Ivanka Mirjana turned and started back to the village. But she said she felt an inner call to go back and so she did. She and Ivanka saw a woman up on the hill dressed in a long gray dress with a white veil holding a baby. Mirjana wondered how she had gotten there in this long dress carrying a baby as the hillside was all rocks! It scared them both and they ran away. Mirjana told her grandmother that she had seen the Gospa and her grandmother told her she had better repent. Mirjana spent the night in prayer but felt called again to go back the next day. To be continued...
