Medjugorje circa 1981
THE FIRST DAYS
June 24th 1981
Ivanka Ivankovic in the early 1980s. She was the first visionary to see the Virgin Mary in Medjugorje
The Virgin Mary first appeared in Medjugorje on June 24th 1981, on the Feast Day of St. John the Baptist, in his day the proclaimer of the coming Messiah. Because it was a Feast Day, the local children were free from school as well as from work in the fields where farmers grew grapes and tobacco.
15 years old Ivanka Ivankovic and 16 years old Mirjana Dragicevic spent their day off together. In the late afternoon they went for a walk. Passing by the local hill called Podbrdo, Ivanka looked toward the hill. Suddenly, about 200 meters up the hill, she saw a luminous figure whom she immediately recognized to be the Virgin Mary.
“Mirjana, look, the Madonna!” Ivanka exclaimed. But Mirjana, a bright city girl from Sarajevo visiting her family in Medjugorje, paid no attention to her friend. She waved her hand and continued to walk.
“Come on! Do you think Our Lady would appear to us?” Mirjana said.
Mirjana’s dismissal was stronger than Ivanka’s belief in what she saw, and so the girls walked on. Next they met 12 years old Milka Pavlovic, a shepherd. She asked the two older girls to join her and bring back the sheep.
When they returned to the foot of the hill, Ivanka again saw the Virgin, this time holding an infant on her arm. Then Milka and Mirjana also looked and saw her. Though they did not know exactly how the Virgin looked, something inside them made them know for sure it was her. The girls felt joy and fear at the same time, a feeling they had never had before.
Before going for their walk by the hill Ivanka and Mirjana had left a note to their friend Vicka Ivankovic, aged 16. Having taken the left exam of the school year that day Vicka was tired when she returned form Mostar, the nearest big city around. When Vicka woke up, she went to look for Ivanka and Mirjana. Vicka soon found the two girls and Milka standing on the road and looking to the hill.
Mirjana Dragicevic in the early 1980s. Her faith was always strong but first she could not believe the Virgin had come
“Look up there: Our Lady” Mirjana proclaimed. Now it was Vicka’s turn not to believe. She did not even bother to look. “What do you mean, Our Lady? What is the matter with you?” Vicka said. She ran away, frightened. On her way back home she lost the slippers she was wearing.
But Vicka never made it all the way home. Instead she met 20 years old Ivan Ivankovic and 16 years old Ivan Dragicevic. They had been picking apples, and the younger Ivan asked Vicka if she wanted some. Yet Vicka had no time to think of apples.
“Ivan, they said Our Lady has appeared up there. Let us go there, you and me – I am afraid” Vicka told the younger Ivan.
When the three returned to the hill, Ivan repeated Vicka’s reaction.
“Do you see anything?” Vicka asked him. But there was no Ivan around to answer her. When Vicka turned, she saw Ivan running away, jumping over a fence and losing all his apples. The other Ivan was still there.
“I see something completely white, turning” he said. “I see Our Lady” Milka exclaimed. Vicka saw a dark hair and a gown. She also saw the Virgin covering and uncovering something, recognized as the others as the Baby Jesus.
The Virgin waved at the youngsters, trying to have them come closer. “She is calling us, but who is going to go?” they asked each other. None of them dared, and they all went home, Vicka first, then the others after her.
Vicka Ivankovic in the early days of the apparitions. Frightened at first, she soon turned into the most fearless witness of the events at Medjugorje
Back home the young people were teased and slightly ridiculed. “You should have caught her”, Milka’s uncle said. “Did they send greetings to your mothers and fathers?”. “Maybe they saw a flying saucer”, one of Vicka’s sisters said.
The visionaries did not pay attention. “Let them talk” was all they thought.
Sources:
Fr. Svetozar Kraljevic: “The Apparitions of Our Lady at Medjugorje”, 3rd edition, Informativni Centar “Mir” Medjugorje 2010, these excerpts based on interviews with Ivanka and Vicka from 1982 and 83.
Fr. René Laurentin: “Learning From Medjugorje”, The Word Among Us Press 1988
Mary Craig: “Spark From Heaven”, Ave Maria Press 1988
June 25th 1981
Milka Pavlovic, visionary for only one day, on the Hill of Apparitions in the early 1980s. It would take years for her to come to terms with her cross of having seen the Virgin Mary only once, and never again
Affected by the teasings from his fellow villagers and telling himself that “this is only for children”, 20 years old Ivan Ivankovic did not follow the other visionaries when, the next day around the same time, they returned to the hill to see if the Virgin Mary would appear again. Neither did 12 years old Milka Pavlovic return: To make sure that she did not, her mother had sent her off to work in the most distantly located vineyard that the Pavlovic family owned.
Instead of them two other youngsters went along when Ivanka, Mirjana and Vicka took off to see what would happen: Milka’s 16 years old sister Marija and little Jakov Colo, aged only 10. If the Virgin re-appeared, Vicka had promised to go and pick up both of them.
The visionaries did not know what to expect. “If we see her, that is okay. If we don’t, what can we do?” Vicka summed up their attitude. The Virgin did re-appear, and once again Ivanka saw her first, then Vicka and Mirjana. Immediately Vicka recognized her face, eyes, hair and gown. During the first days of the apparitions, the visionaries were not yet in complete ecstacy, as if drawn from the world, when they had the Virgin before them. And so Vicka went to call Marija and Jakov who came immediately.
Marija Pavlovic in the early 1980s. Having finished her work in the kitchen, on day 2 she was allowed by her mother to follow the visionaries instead of her younger sister, Milka. "Marija can go. One of you is enough", their mother said
With her hand the Virgin motioned the visionaries, trying to have them come closer, and unlike the day before, the visionaries responded by rushing up the hill. On top of it they met Ivan who had come up another way along with some of his friends.
“It was not like walking on the ground. Nor did we look for the path. We simply ran toward her. In five minutes we were on the hill – as if something had pulled us through the air. I was afraid. I also was barefoot, but no thorns had scratched me”, Vicka recalled during an interview in March 1982.
The visionaries ran through thorn shrubs. Two adults and some more children followed them, more than 15 people all in all. They later testified that they were amazed by the speed of the visionaries whom they were far from able to keep pace with. One of the men was Mirjana’s uncle who later testified: “It takes at least 12 minutes to get up there, yet they did it in two. It scared me to death”.
When the visionaries were about two meters away from the Virgin, they felt as if they were thrown to their knees. In Vicka’s words “Jakov was thrown kneeling into a thorny bush, and I thought he would be injured. But he came out of it without a scratch”. It was the first little miracles among the countless numbers that were later to take place in Medjugorje.
For the first time the visionaries spoke to the apparition before them. Ivanka asked about her mother who had died a few months earlier, and was greatly consoled to hear that she was in Heaven with the Virgin.
Ivan Dragicevic in the early 1980s. Not particularly religious by the time the apparitions began and very, very shy throughout his childhood, people who knew him found it very much unlikely that he would ever take part in inventing visions of the Virgin or seek out the attention bestowed on the visionaries from the day the apparitions began
Mirjana complained that no one would believe the visionaries, just be telling them that they were crazy. According to Vicka, the Virgin Mary just smiled in response.
Aside of this, the visionaries prayed seven Our Fathers with the Virgin. “We were praying because we did not know what else to do. We were crying a little and praying a little” Vicka later explained.
The vision lasted between 10 and 15 minutes. Then, according to the visionaries, the Virgin Mary left them with the words “Go in God’s peace”.
Marveled by the otherworldly beauty of the woman before them, but also confused and full of many questions, it would take a little while until the seers were able to feel the peace of God. On the contrary, Ivanka wept all the way down the hill. Marinko Ivankovic, a 38 years old mechanic, was unable to console her when he met her and the other visionaries at the foot of Podbrdo.
Feeling that the priests should be informed, Marinko went to the church, only to find the parish priest, Fr. Jozo Zovko, out of town – and realizing that his assistant pastor, Fr. Zrinko Cuvalo, wanted nothing to do with the story. Disappointed at this, Marinko went back and talked to the seers himself.
This was when Marinko started thinking to himself that maybe the youngsters were actually telling the truth. He knew Ivanka very well and considered her a level-headed, studious girl. He also knew the Pavlovic sisters, Marija and Milka, as they used to come by to help his wife, Dragica, in doing the dishes. The more he listened to them, the more he believed.
Sources:
Fr. Svetozar Kraljevic: “The Apparitions of Our Lady at Medjugorje”, third English edition, Informativni Centar “Mir” Medjugorje 2010
Fr. René Laurentin: “Learning From Medjugorje”, The Word Among Us Press 1988
Stipe Cavar: “The First Months of the Apparitions in Medjugorje”, Ziral 2000
Mary Craig: “Spark From Heaven”, Ave Maria Press 1988
June 26th 1981
By the third day, news of the apparitions had spread far beyond Medjugorje, and in the afternoon about 3,000 people gathered on the hill. They did not only come from the surrounding villages and towns, but from even greater distances, too. They were rewarded by seeing a brilliant light that shone on the village and the entire area.
Jakov Colo with Vicka Ivankovic in the early 1980s. "Now when I have seen her, I can die, I don't mind", Jakov said upon his first apparitions. He was 10 years old
Among the followers was 12 years old Jozo Ostojic, well-known in the area for having recently set a new regional record for the 100 meter dash. Now he, too, became a witness of the amazing speed by which the visionaries rushed up the hill, as if flying or pulled by an invisible force, just like they had the day before.
The one who amazed the young aspiring athlete the most was 10 years old Jakov Colo:
“Jakov was two years younger than me, and not really athletic; normally I can outrun him by a huge distance. But on that day, I couldn’t come close to keeping up with him. He and the others seemed to be flying up that hill. There was no path, just rocks and thornbushes, but all six of them were moving at an incredible speed, bounding from rock to rock, taking enormous strides. I was running as fast as I could, but falling further and further behind, and so were the grown men running with me”, Jozo Ostojic later testified.
Even to this day, the path up Apparition Hill is covered by rocks and stones, big and small. But on the second, third, fourth, and fifth day, according to numerous eyewitnesses, the visionaries seemed to be flying up the hill at great speed
When the vision had begun, Vicka sprinkled holy water on the apparition saying “If you are Our Lady, stay with us. If you are not, be gone!”. Vicka did not spare the water, but emptied the entire bottle on the apparition. According to the visionaries, the Virgin Mary smiled beautifully. They understood her smile to indicate her pleasure with this little test.
The heat was intense, and the throngs of people only added to it. Mirjana and Ivanka even fainted and had to be secluded and revived.
The apparition was a long one, lasting about 30 minutes. The visionaries asked the Virgin a number of questions, among them why she had come to their village.
“I have come because there are many true believers here. I have come to convert and reconcile the whole world”, the Virgin Mary replied.
“Why are you appearing to us? We are no better than any others”, one of the visionaries said. “I do not necessarily choose the best”, the Virgin humorously answered.
When the apparition had ended and people were descending the hill, the Virgin Mary suddenly re-appeared to Marija only. To Vicka, walking a bit behind Marija, it looked as if she was being tossed to the side. A local man, Ante Kozina, was about 15 feet behind Marija when she suddenly turned right, looked at the sky, stretched her arms, and knelt down. The people in the crowd behind her also stopped, riveted. Ten minutes later Marija returned to this world and looked up. Her face was bathed in tears, and she was unable to stand on her feet to begin with.
“I am 100 percent sure something supernatural happened to that girl”, Ante Kozina later testified.
The plain wooden cross erected on the spot where Marija Pavlovic saw the Virgin Mary in tears on June 26th
According to Marija, the experience had been “overwhelming”, and immediately had made her commit herself completely to the Virgin Mary’s request: She had seen the Virgin in front of a bare cross formed of all colours of the rainbow. In tears she had been urging:
“Peace, peace peace! Be reconciled! Only peace. Make your peace with God and among yourselves. For that, it is necessary to believe, to pray, to fast, and to go to confession”.
Sources:
Fr. Svetozar Kraljevic: “The Apparitions of Our Lady at Medjugorje”, third English edition, Informativni Centar “Mir” Medjugorje 2010
Fr. Janko Bubalo: “A Thousand Encounters with The Blessed Virgin Mary in Medjugorje”, Friends of Medjugorje Chicago 1987
Randall Sullivan: “The Miracle Detective”, Grove Press 2004
Mary Craig: “Spark From Heaven”, Ave Maria Press 1988
June 27th 1981
On the fourth day of the apparitions, the local Communist authorities intervened for the first time. In the afternoon the visionaries were summoned to the police station in Citluk, the municipality capital. Here the visionaries maintained that they had seen the Virgin Mary.
Afterwards they were sent to be examined by the doctor on duty, Dr. Ante Vujevic. However, he only got to examine Ivan and was about to take a look at Vicka when the time of the apparition drew close and made the visionaries leave and go back to Medjugorje. Dr. Vujevic found nothing amiss in his examination of Ivan but aside from that he refrained from drawing any conclusions.
“We would have gone (to the hill) even if we had been told that we would be shot”, Vicka later told.
Once more great numbers of people had come to the hill: Now about 5,000. There was lots of pushing, everytbody trying to get as close to the seers as they could. Two times a spectator unknowingly stepped on the Virgin Mary’s long veil, and on both occasions this made her disappear. The people formed a circle around the visionaries, and when the Virgin came back for a third time, there was sufficient order for the apparition to be lasting longer.
This day, too, the Virgin answered several questions: “Let them believe strongly and guard the faith” in reply to what she wanted from the priests. “Let those who do not see believe as if they see” was her advice to the people at large.
Mirjana was greatly concerned by allegations of sceptics who thought the visionaries were epileptics or had been taking drugs. “My angels, do not be afraid of injustices. They have always existed” was the Virgin’s reply.
Fr. Jozo Zovko in the later 1980s. To begin with Medjugorje's parish priest did not believe the visionaries. Later he went on to become one of the greatest apostles of the Virgin's apparitions, bringing the message of Medjugorje to all four corners of the world
That same day Medjugorje’s parish priest returned to the village. For all the days of the apparitions so far he had been conducting a retreat for nuns in Zagreb. Fr. Jozo Zovko, a 40 years old Franciscan with a deep prayer life and a habit of long homilies, was startled to find the church surrounded by cars, trucks, tractors, donkey carts, and a huge crowd. Inside the retory he found a tape recorder in the meeting room, turned it on and listened to interviews with Ivan and Vicka, conducted that same morning by his assistant, Fr. Zrinko Cuvalo.
Fr. Jozo did not like the perspective at all: In Communist, atheist Yugoslavia religious gatherings outside the churches were illegal, and he also feared the apparitions had been set up by the Communists in an attempt to discredit and ridicule the Church. His assistant explained to him that the visionaries would return to the rectory that same afternoon so Fr. Jozo could question each of them.
In talking to the visionaries, Fr. Jozo disliked the ordinary language they made use of to describe their experiences. When he got to 10 years old Jakov, his attitude had turned to irritation: “You did not see her!” he sternly told the boy. “I saw the Madonna! I saw her as if she were in front of me. I saw her like I see you”, Jakov maintained.
Soon Fr. Jozo did not know what to think. On the one hand he found the Virgin Mary unlikely to choose six such ordinary youngsters (and not to any of the eight particularly pious village girls he had brought together as a prayer group). And there were slight differences when the visionaries were to explain what the Virgin had told them.
But on the other hand he was intrigued by the consistency in the physical descriptions of the Virgin offered by the seers: About 20 years old, indescribably beautiful, with blue eyes, black hair and a crown of 12 stars above her head, wearing a white veil and a blueish grey robe, hovering just above the ground and speaking in a singing voice.
Sources:
Fr. Svetozar Kraljevic: “The Apparitions of Our Lady at Medjugorje”, third English edition, Informativni Centar “Mir” Medjugorje 2010
Randall Sullivan: “The Miracle Detective”, Grove Press 2004
June 28th 1981
The word kept spreading, and by the fifth day an estimated 15,000 people gathered on the hill. If men from the village had not made a path for the visionaries, they would have been unable to make their way through the crowd.
Among the many spectators was a local man named Grgo Kozina. He brought a tape recorder with him to be able to record any message the visionaries might obtain from the Virgin. They got quite a number but all the answers were essentially the same: The Virgin Mary wanted the locals to have faith, firm faith – to believe as if they had seen.
One of the earliest known photos of the visionaries, taken on the Hill of Apparitions on June 29th 1981. Left to right: Ivan, Marija, Mirjana, Ivanka, Vicka and Jakov. Far right: Grgo Kozina with his tape recorder, also in use the day before
Having just returned from the blissful state of the apparition, the visionaries next found themselves catapulted into a way less pleasant atmosphere: In the parish rectory they were aggressively questioned by the assistant pastor, Fr. Zrinko Cuvalo.
Fr. Zrinko chose to be purposefully antagonistic by asking the visionaries apparantly hostile questions. By subjecting them to a maximum of pressure, Fr. Zrinko wanted to test their reaction; at times he even claimed to visionaries to have been acting contrary to what he himself had seen with his own eyes during the apparition shortly before.
The visionaries stood by their word, by now more or less used to the hard questioning from the priests. Another such hour-long session had taken place early in the morning when Fr. Jozo, the parish priest, had questioned all six of them separately. During this interview session, particularly Vicka had made an impression upon him by answering back to questions she found silly, meaningless.
“Was the Virgin vexed when, yesterday, people stood on her veil?”, Fr. Jozo wanted to know. “Look, Our Lady cannot be ‘vexed’. She is not like us. She had no problem”, Vicka replied. “Why does the Virgin wear such a long veil?”, another priest asked. “How should I know?” said Vicka in reply. “Then what caused the Madonna to disappear?”, Fr. Jozo asked her next – only to be met with the answer: “Ask her!”.
As things turned out, a few more days would pass by until Fr. Jozo got that opportunity presented to him.
Sources:
Fr. Svetozar Kraljevic: “The Apparitions of Our Lady at Medjugorje”, third English edition, Informativni Centar “Mir” Medjugorje 2010
Fr. Janko Bubalo: “A Thousand Encounters with The Virgin Mary in Medjugorje”, Friends of Medjugorje Chicago 1987
Randall Sullivan: “The Miracle Detective”, Grove Press 2004
June 29th 1981
On the sixth day of the apparitions, the police sent the visionaries to yet another doctor, this time a psychiatrist. Before the morning Mass, they were forced into an ambulance and taken away. And now they were not only being sent to nearby Citluk, but to Mostar, the capital of the Yugoslavian province of Hercegovina. Here they passed all tests and examinations they were subjected to by Dr. Mulija Dzuzda who declared them all healthy and perfectly normal.
Medjugorje in the Summer of 1981. An oasis of peace was in the making, but first the ruling Communists turned the village into a nightmare of surveillance and harassment
“It is the people who brought you here who must be insane. There is nothing wrong with you”, Dr. Dzuzda boldly told the visionaries.
To frighten the six, they first had to wait for an hour in the hallway. On one side, the insane were walking around in a courtyard; on the other was the hospital’s morgue where the seers saw corpses in various stages of autopsy. All six except Vicka later admitted to having felt fear. “Why should I be afraid? Everyone dies. It is the common lot”, was Vicka’s reply.
Threats that the visionaries, too, could end up among those declared mentally ill were particularly frightening to Mirjana who, living in Sarajevo, had heard of many cases where opponents of Communist party officials had been locked up in psychiatric wards, never to be heard from again.
“If they question me once more, I will have a nervous breakdown”, said Mirjana. At one point she even doubted she would go back to the Hill of Apparitions. As the time of the apparition approached, she found that no one or nothing could prevent her from returning to the hill. The question of whether or not she should go simply did not arise.
In the late afternoon the visionaries were allowed to go back to Medjugorje where all six except Ivan went straight to the Hill of Apparitions. When Ivan returned, he found his family home guarded by police and armed officers from the state security police who had been assigned to the homes of all the visionaries. Instructed to follow the movements of the seers, the guards barred doors, peered in windows, and were even stationed on rooftops.
Surrounded to all sides by this hostility, Ivan’s parents forbade him to go to the hill. However, the decision to obey his parents made Ivan sick to his stomach, and when the time of the apparition approached he tried to make it to the apparition, all through waves of nausea. Having walked half the way, he made a silent vow to himself never to be absent again, and at that moment the Virgin appeared to him by the roadside, consoloing him and asking him to have courage.
Vicka’s mother, too, began to sway as the pressure increased. During one of the earliest days she was waiting outside Fr. Jozo’s room while the parish priest questioned the seers. To another priest, Fr. Tomislav Pervan, she cried out: “Father, please try to get this crazy thing out of their minds. I cannot take it anymore! I have seven other children at home…and Grandma…and my husband is in Germany. And now all these police around the house and all that is happening and all this commotion around the house…and people gathering here. I cannot stand it. I cannot carry it anymore!”
Upon hearing this, Vicka talked to her mother, overheard by several priests: “But Mama, what can I say? I am seeing the Blessed Virgin”.
On the hill more than 15,000 people gathered that day. “Will we be able to endure all this?” was one understandable question put forth to the Virgin. “You will be able to endure, my angels. Do not fear. You will be able to endure everything. You must believe and have confidence in me”, was the Virgin Mary’s reply, according to the visionaries.
Darinka Glamuzina, doctor, declared atheist, and among the first medical specialists to take a look at the visionaries. In the years to come, a countless number of her colleagues would go on to conclude that the seers are healthy and perfectly normal - and to exclude all the known alternative explanations of the behavior of the visionaries during apparitions
On Apparition Hill another doctor showed up: Dr. Darinka Glamuzina, from Citluk and a declared atheist. Upon asking the visionaries she was allowed to touch the Virgin who, according to the visionaries, answered the request saying “There have always been Judases who don’t believe, but she can approach”.
Vicka showed the doctor where to place her hand. Upon touching the apparition, the doctor immediately pulled back her arm and withdrew. On her face was an expression that thrilled some, and frightened others. People close to her said it seemed like she experienced an electrical shock – the doctor herself later testified that she had felt “a shudder”. People who saw her descend the hill said she looked severely shocked. At the foot of the hill, she told the waiting police that she wanted nothing more to do with their investigation.
June 29th also saw the first miraculous cure among the more than 500 for which documentation is today being kept in Medjugorje’s parish archive: Daniel Setka, a 3 years old boy who had been unable to speak as well as walk by himself throughout his young life, uttered his first word when his parents returned with him upon having had him presented to the Virgin during the apparition. The next day the family returned to the hill where Daniel was suddenly able to walk by himself. “Look, Mummy, I am walking!”, the little boy exclaimed. Many people witnessed this touching scene.
At the end of the day, the visionaries were together on the terrace belonging to Marinko and Dragica Ivankovic, a local couple who believed them from the beginning. Here they passed on everything the Virgin Mary had told them so far – to a large, enthusiastic crowd that refused to let them return to their homes until after 11 o’clock in the evening. During the first week the visionaries only had very little sleep. But things should turn even more exhausting for them.
Sources:
Fr. Svetozar Kraljevic: “The Apparitions of Our Lady at Medjugorje”, third English edition, Informativni Centar “Mir” Medjugorje 2010
Fr. Svetozar Kraljevic: “In the Company of Mary”, St. Francis Press 1988
Fr. Janko Bubalo: “A Thousand Encounters with The Virgin Mary in Medjugorje”, Friends of Medjugorje Chicago 1987
Fr. René Laurentin: “Learning From Medjugorje”, The Word Among Us Press 1988
Randall Sullivan: “The Miracle Detective”, Grove Press 2004
Mary Craig: “Spark From Heaven”, Ave Maria Press 1988
June 30th 1981
For the visionaries a very long and tough seventh day of the apparitions got started right after morning Mass when the parish priest, Fr. Jozo Zovko, subjected them to yet another session of hard interviewing. For example, directly accusing the visionaries’ grown-up friend Marinko Ivankovic for having written the alleged answers of the Virgin Mary as well as the questions put forth to her, Fr. Jozo asked Ivanka if it was not better if he, a priest, wrote the answers.
Ivanka in the early days
“He did not write the answers, only the questions”, Ivanka insisted. Fr. Jozo had equally little success when next he summoned Mirjana to be questioned. “I am not afraid of the state security police. But I am petrified that they might put me in the hospital”, she said, still having her experience from the day before very much on her mind.
“God terribly punishes anyone who misleads people. It may be tomorrow He terribly punishes you six”, Fr. Jozo next told Mirjana. “I don’t think He will”, Mirjana replied. “Why won’t He?”, Fr. Jozo asked next. “Because we are not lying”, said Mirjana.
Pressure came from both sides, clerical and secular alike: Still more determined to put the apparitions to an end, the Communist authorities deployed yet another means on June 30th. Around 2 o’clock in the afternoon, two social workers invited the visionaries to join them for what would be a car trip of just about four hours. All six except Ivan agreed and went along. As for Fr. Jozo, around the same moment he and his assistant, Fr. Zrinko Cuvalo, were summoned to the local Communist Party headquarters in Citluk to offer “an explanation” as to what was going on in their parish. That same afternoon they were threatened that “dire consequences” were to fall upon them in case they did not manage to immediately “extinguish this charade”.
The Hill of Apparitions seen from Cerno where the visionaries had their apparition on June 30th 1981 - and saw the hill and all the people gathered there engulfed in a bright, shining light. The apparition at Cerno would be the first among a countless number to show that the Virgin Mary appears to the visionaries, no matter where they are.
Driving by local towns and villages and going to see the waterfalls at Kravica, too, the visionaries had also been treated with a restaurant dinner when eventually they realized that the purpose of their road trip was one of keeping them away from the Hill of Apparitions. Around six o’clock they were passing through the village called Cerno when the visionaries, sensing that the Virgin Mary was about to appear, demanded the social workers to stop and let them out. Pretending not to hear them, the social workers kept driving, only to hear the visionaries say they would otherwise jump out of the car. Only then did the social workers stop.
The visionaries went a bit off the road. From their position high above the valley, they could see the Hill of Apparitions though they were several miles away from the hill. As they looked towards the hill, the visionaries saw it was bathed in a bright, shining light that completely engulfed it along with all the now 20,000 people who had gathered. The two social workers also saw the light on the hill. It moved towards the visionaries who then started singing and praying. Next they fell to their knees, and the apparition began.
During the apparition the visionaries asked the Virgin Mary if she was angry with them, now when they were not on the hill. “That does not matter”, the Virgin replied, according to the visionaries. Only the time of the apparition would always be the same, the Virgin told them next.
Having been informed of this, the visionaries asked the two social workers to drive them back to Medjugorje. Not to the hill where the visionaries realized that all the thousands of people had been waiting in vain, but to the parish office. Among the people, all kinds of rumors went around: That the visionaries had fled or had been taken to prison. As people were gossiping, Fr. Jozo, the parish priest, questioned the seers until just about 9 o’clock in the evening.
Marinko Ivankovic, in the earliest days the one local man who did most to protect the visionaries. An unknown mechanic in 1981, the apparitions in his village later earned him invitations to give his testimony at several Marian conferences in the United States
Even then, for the visionaries the day was yet to come to an end. When they heard that their friend Marinko Ivankovic had been arrested, accused of having initiated the apparitions, at 10 o’clock they went to the police station in the municipality capital of Citluk to inform the police that Marinko had not initiated anything and indeed was guilty of nothing: Marinko was equally innocent of having encouraged religious gatherings in a public space, another accusation leveled against him, the visionaries insisted during their encounter with the head of the local police.
“Arrest us if you want, but leave Marinko alone”, Vicka told the chief of police. Threats and accusations were leveled against them, and also against Zlata, Vicka’s mother who was with them: “What an education you are giving your children! This country of Tito which we have freed with much blood, you are going to destroy it!” was just one among a large number. “You keep your Tito. We have Our Lady!”, Vicka boldly answered back.
Only at 2 o’clock in the middle of the night were the visionaries able to go home – along with Marinko.
Sources:
Fr. Svetozar Kraljevic: “The Apparitions of Our Lady at Medjugorje”, third English edition, Informativni Centar “Mir” Medjugorje 2010
Fr. Janko Bubalo: “A Thousand Encounters with The Virgin Mary in Medjugorje”, Friends of Medjugorje, Chicago 1987
Mary Craig: “Spark From Heaven”, Ave Maria Press 1988
Randall Sullivan: “The Miracle Detective”, Grove Press 2004
July 1st 1981
From the early hours of the eighth day, the visionaries were being chased by large police forces. Throughout the village people were being asked where they were but the answers were of little help to the police: In the fields, in the village, here, there, everywhere.
It may not look too frightening, but there were many of them: A good week into the apparitions, tracking down the visionaries was the top priority of the local police
In a sense they were right because the visionaries, fully aware that they were being looked for, stayed out of sight and even changed their clothes in order to change their appearance. However, in the early afternoon all these precautions did not prevent Ivanka, Marija and Vicka from being tracked down by two policemen who offered to take them along for a ride: This way, the officers explained, both sides would get what they wanted: The visionaries would escape the throng of people who kept asking them all kinds of questions – and the police would keep the seers away from the Hill of Apparitions.
Ivanka, Marija and Vicka accepted the offer, but soon had to acknowledge they had fallen into a trap. When the police car drove by the church toward Ciluk, they started banging the doors as they shouted for help. This was when the Virgin Mary appeared to them briefly to offer her encouragement. The police officers noticed the expressions on the girls’ faces and stopped the car, shouting they were witches. The three visionaries flung the doors open and ran through the vineyards, heading for the church.The two policemen continued chasing them on foot.
St. James' Church in Medjugorje in the Summer of 1981. The stream of people heading towards the church is merely a symbol of the throng that gathered for the evening Mass on July 1st - and of the more than 30 million pilgrims who were later to arrive
Inside the church Fr. Jozo, the parish priest, found himself in great anguish. Now both of his assistants had started to believe that the visions of the children might be real. Feeling great responsibility towards the people as well as towards his fellow priests, yet less and less knowing what to make of the whole situation, alone in the church he knelt down and prayed: “God, I know You talked to Abraham, to Moses and to others. Now there are thousands of people here these days. Tell me where the river is going. I do not know where the mouth of that river is, nor what its source is”.
To Fr. Jozo, what happened next was both a turning point and a moment of profound revelation. While he was praying, he heard a voice say: “Come out and protect the children!”. He left his Bible and breviary behind, genuflected and with no further thought or delay left the church. As he left St. James’ Church through the middle door, with his foot still in the air and the door handle still in his hand, the visionaries ran toward him from the left side.
“The police are after us! Hide us!”, the visionaries told him. They gathered around him, and Fr. Jozo embraced them. Next he took them to the rectory and locked them in an unoccupied room. In the very last minute, it showed, for the next to be rounded up by the police was Fr. Jozo himself.
“Did you see the children?”, he was asked. “I did”, Fr. Jozo answered as he pointed towards the visionaries’ part of the village. When the policemen ran there, Fr. Jozo returned to the seers. Soon after the Virgin Mary appeared to them and consoled them.
Fr. Jozo with five of the visionaries in the Summer of 1981. Left to right around the priest: Ivanka, Jakov, Vicka, Mirjana, and Marija
At 4 o’clock in the afternoon all the visionaries were together in the church. The word started spreading that the seers would be there, not on the Hill of Apparitions. Around 5 o’clock Fr. Zrinko started leading the people in the prayers of the Rosary, and one hour later Fr. Jozo found the church packed with people to the point when he could not stretch out his arms in saying “The Lord be with you” when the Mass began. During his homily the Virgin Mary appeared to the visionaries in a small room in the rectory.
In his homily Fr. Jozo asked the congregation to pray and to fast, begging God to help them all to understand the events. The throng of people responded, full of faith: “We will!”.
That evening the spectators became participators – and the centre of events also shifted from the Hill of Apparitions to the church. In this way, the eighth day of the apparitions became a prelude to how things have been in Medjugorje ever since.
Endnotes:
Though the interrogations went on, and though the visionaries and their families were threatened with the loss of their land and their houses, none of them were ever sent to prison. However, every day for about half a year Mirjana was taken to the police station in Sarajevo for intensive questioning, and there were many other harassments as well. Instead Fr. Jozo was sentenced to three years of prison out of which he served a year and a half subjected to hard physical work and occasional torture. Fr. Jozo had lost the last traces of his disbelief in the apparitions when he also saw the Virgin Mary during an evening Mass, as witnessed by a great many people. Also 20 years old Ivan Ivankovic who only saw the outline of the Virgin and only on the first day had to spend a while in prison for refusing to deny the apparitions.
Sources:
Fr. Svetozar Kraljevic: “The Apparitions of Our Lady at Medjugorje”, third English edition, Informativni Centar “Mir” Medjugorje” 2010
Fr. René Laurentin: “Learning From Medjugorje”, The Word Among Us Press 1988
Randall Sullivan: “The Miracle Detective”, Grove Press 2004
Podbrdo or Apparition Hill
THE APPARITIONS CONTINUE
Soon after this the police began to hinder the children and the pilgrims going on Podbrdo, the site of apparitions. The children, and soon afterwards even the crowds were forbidden to go there. But Our Lady continued to appear to them in secret places, in their homes and in the fields. The children had already gained confidence, and openly spoke with Our Lady, eagerly seeking her advice, listening to her warnings and messages. The events of Medjugorje continued in this fashion up until the 15th of January 1982.
In the meantime, the Parish Priest began to host the pilgrims in the Church, enabling them to participate in the rosary and to celebrate the Eucharist. The children also gave out the rosary. Our Lady sometimes appeared to them in the church at that time. Even the Parish Priest himself once while praying the rosary, saw Our Lady. Immediately he broke off praying and spontaneously started to sing a popular hymn: "Lijepa si, lijepa, Djevo Marijo" - "O how beautiful you are, Most Blessed Virgin Mary". The whole church could see that something unusual was happening to him. Afterwards he stated that he had seen her. And so, he who up until then had not only been doubtful, but openly against even rumours of the apparitions, became their defender. He testified his support of the apparitions even to the point of serving a prison sentence.
From the 15th of January 1982 onwards the children saw Our Lady in a closed off area of the
Parish Church. The Parish Priest arranged this because of the newly arisen difficulties and sometimes even dangers, which provided themselves for the visionaries. Previously the children had ensured that this was in accord with Our Lady's wishes. Because of the prohibitions of the Diocesan Bishop however, from April 1985 onwards the children ceased to use the area of the church as an apparition site. Instead, they went to a room in the Parish house.
All this time, from the beginning of the apparitions up until today, there have only been five days when none of the children saw Our Lady. Our Lady didn't always appear in the same place either, nor to the same group, nor individuals, nor did her apparitions always last a specified period. Sometimes the apparitions lasted two minutes, sometimes an hour. Neither did Our Lady appear at the children's will. Sometimes they prayed and waited but Our Lady didn't appear until a little while afterwards, unexpectedly and unforewarned. And sometimes she appeared to one and not to the others. If she hadn't promised an appointed time, nobody knew when she would appear, or if she would appear. Neither did she appear always to just the aforesaid visionaries, but to others also of different age, stature, race, education and walks of life. All this suggests that the apparitions are not a product of the imagination. It depends neither on time nor place, nor desire nor the prayer of pilgrim or visionary, but moreover on the will of Him who permits it.
A few months into the apparitions the Virgin Mary began to entrust to the visionaries informations they were not allowed to share with other people. These informations are prophecies – future events foretold by the Virgin. Within the Medjugorje movement they are referred to as ‘the secrets’, a term that the visionaries were themselves the first to coin.
According to the visionaries, the events will take place during their lifetimes. The six visionaries were born between 1964 and 1971. At least in the case of Mirjana the events will be foretold to the world before they take place. Three days before, to be exact.
Each of the visionaries will receive 10 such secrets, they have said from the beginning. Some of them have to do with beautiful events while at least the last four ones are more or less disasterous.
The visionaries in the first year of the apparitions. In the middle Ivanka and Mirjana who appear to have the most exact and detailed knowledge of the future of the world
Some of the secrets are global in nature, others local, and yet others have to do with the seers themselves. According to Mirjana (who says she knows the timing of each secret down to the hour and minute), “the dates of the secrets have not altered and cannot be”.
(1)While Mirjana will have a key role when the secrets are to be revealed, it appears that Ivanka, too, knows a lot:
”It is well-known that Vicka has written notebooks about the Virgin Mary’s life, but what isn’t well-known is that Ivanka has several notebooks of her own; about the world’s future”, the very knowledgable French nun Sr. Emmanuel Maillard has written.
(2)The visionaries: Do not fear, but prepare
In spite of their knowledge and despite that the later secrets made all the visionaries sad, they have repeatedly said that no one should fear the 10 secrets. Instead they have repeatedly urged everyone to prepare – by making good use of this time which the Virgin Mary has called “a time of grace”: A time to convert and return to God thorugh prayer, fasting, confession, going to church and reading the Bible.
Mirjana - chosen for a key role when the secrets are to be revealed
“People always ask me curious questions about the secrets. But I tell them that the Virgin Mary has said that we should not talk about the secrets, but that we should pray. Anyone who accepts the Virgin Mary as his Mother and God as his Father does not have to worry about anything”, Mirjana said in 2001 and, indeed, on many other occasions.
(3)“There is no need to frighten people. The Virgin Mary does not come to frighten anyone. That is not her goal. She comes to help us”, Ivan said in 1992 and, again, on many other occasions.
(4)“With prayer and penance the chastisement can be lessened. I can only say: Prepare. If you do, you will thank God for all eternity”, Vicka has said.
(5) Secrets are about the world, each person, the Church, Medjugorje, and the seers
During their adult lives the visionaries have said less and less about the secrets. Their approach was slightly more informative in the early years of the apparitions. And so, in an interview conducted in early December 1982, four of the visionaries gave somewhat revealing answers to the Franciscan priest Fr. Ljudevit Rupcic. It is worthy of mention that, by the time of this interview, none of the seers had received the tenth secret. Mirjana knew 9, Vicka and Ivanka 7 and Marija only 6 of the secrets:
Marija: “[My secrets] have to do with us, the Church, people in general.”
Mirjana: “They have to do with us ourselves, the sign, the whole world, and also Medjugorje.”
Ivanka: “Some concern us personally, others, the Church and the world.”
Vicka: “The first secret has to do with our church in Medjugorje. It has to do as well with the sign, humanity in general, and each person. The secrets speak of the Church in general. There are some which concern us.”
(6) Generally the seers know the same secrets
Another topic to raise some speculation has been if the visionaries know the same secrets. Otherwise the total number of future events covered by the secrets could be thought to (even far) outnumber the ten to be entrusted to each visionary. On this note Vicka gave the answer in a 1983 interview with the local Franciscan priest Fr. Janko Bubalo:
Visionary Vicka Ivankovic and the local Franciscan priest Fr. Janko Bubalo during one of their interview sessions in 1983-84. "Everything I have to say about the secrets I told to Fr. Janko Bubalo", Vicka said on a later occasion
Fr. Janko: “Are those secrets the same for each of you?”
Vicka: “They are and they aren’t.”
Fr. Janko: “And how is that?”
Vicka: “Just so. The main secrets are the same, but perhaps some of us have a secret which applies to us alone.”
Fr. Janko: “Do you have such a secret?
Vicka: “I have one. It is for me alone, since it concerns me only.”
Fr. Janko: “Do the others have any such secrets?”
Vicka: “That I don’t know. It seems to me that Ivan does.”
Fr. Janko: “I know that Mirjana, Ivanka, and Marija don’t have any since they told me. I don’t, however, know for little Jakov. He didn’t want to answer me on that point, while Ivan said that he had three which concern him only.” (7)
”None of my secrets are secrets that relate only to me. The secrets are for the entire world”, Mirjana confirmed on September 13th 1998, during a Q and A session at the Chicago Marian Conference.
(8) The secrets determine the duration of each seer’s daily apparitions
At least so far the reception of the tenth and final secret has meant the end of daily apparitions for the visionaries who received the tenth secret. This happened first to Mirjana (in 1982), then to Ivanka (in 1985), and then to Jakov (in 1998). According to their testimonies, Vicka, Marija and Ivan have received nine secrets each and so still have daily apparitions.
For many years it was commonly believed that none of the visionaries would still have daily apparitions by the time when the secrets begin to unfold. As such, it was one of the biggest pieces of substantial news on Medjugorje for years when, in January 2008, Vicka told Radio Maria that one visionary will still have daily apparitions, even throughout the entire revelation:
Interviewer: “You also said the last time [we spoke], last year, that during the time of the ten secrets one of the seers will still have the daily apparitions?”.
Vicka: “Yes, it is certain, it is something I repeat now. We will see who it is, there is still me, Marija and Ivan. Afterwards we will see who the Madonna has chosen, who [of us three] remains with the apparitions. Or maybe it will be someone else that the Madonna has chosen.”
Vicka: “The Madonna told me personally. Afterwards we shall see, the Madonna didn’t say, “Vicka, it will be you” [...]. Now we just wait to see who it will be. She said that when the time comes, to the person who will continue to have the apparitions, she will explain every ‘how and what’ to that person. ”
(9)Mirjana’s key role in the revelation
Fr. Petar Ljubicic, the Franciscan priest chosen by Mirjana to reveal her secrets to the world
One visionary to whom the Virgin Mary has already “explained every how and what” is Mirjana. The first visionary to receive the tenth secret, Mirjana was also entrusted the mission of revealing her secrets to the world when the time comes. This she will do through the Franciscan priest Fr. Petar Ljubicic whom she chose for this purpose in 1985.
Since then Mirjana has explained the procedure on countless occasions: Ten days before each event she will alert Fr. Petar that an event covered by the secrets is about to occur. Then the two of them will pray and fast for seven days. Three days before each occurence, Mirjana has said, Fr. Petar will make public what will happen three days later.
According to Mirjana, the priest will do this after having been (supernaturally) enabled to read the secret on a parchment that Mirjana says has been given to her by the Virgin Mary. She has said that this parchment lists the contents of all her ten secrets, but that Fr. Petar will only be enabled to read them one at a time. Mirjana has said that she knows the timing of each of her secrets down to the hour and minute.
”You don’t have to worry about anything. You will know everything”, Mirjana has answered the question of how the world will be made aware that one of the secrets is about to unfold.
(8) When Fr. Petar and Mirjana release
the first secret, they will announce an event that, according to Mirjana, “will make people pause and think”.
Sources:
(1) Michael H. Brown: “When Will the Permanent Sign Foreseen at Medjugorje Occur?”,
Spirit Daily 2001
(2) Sr. Emmanuel Maillard: “Medjugorje, the 90s”, Queenship Publications 1997
(3) Medjugorje Gebetsaktion no. 61, June 2001
(4) Medjugorje Gebetsaktion no. 28, January 1993
(5) Janice Connell: “Queen of the Cosmos”, Paraclete Press 1990
(6) Fr. Ljudevit Rupcic and Fr. René Laurentin: “Is the Virgin Mary Appearing at Medjugorje?”, The Word Among Us Press 1984
(7) Fr. Janko Bubalo: “A Thousand Encounters with the Virgin Mary in Medjugorje”, Friends of Medjugorje Chicago 1987
(8) Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo: Q and A session in Chicago on September 13th 1998, quoted here from
medjugorje.org
(9) Vicka Ivankovic-Mijatovic interviewed by Radio Maria on January 2nd 2008
The visionaries have given a description of Our Lady:
1. How tall is the Madonna ? About 165 cm - Like me. (Vicka) [5 feet 5 inches]
2. Does she look rather "slender", slim or . . .?She looks rather slender.
3. About how many kilograms do you think she weighs?About 60 kilograms (132 pounds).
4. How old does Our Lady appera? From 18 to 20 years old.
5. When she is with the Child Jesus does she look older?She looks as usual - she looks the same.
6. When Our Lady is with you is she always standing or . . . Always standing.
7. On what is she standing?On some little cloud.
8. What colour is that little cloud?The cloud is a whitish color.
9. Have you ever seen her kneel?Never! (Vicka, Ivan, Ivanka. . .)
10. Naturally your Madonna also has her own face. How does it look: round or rather long - oval?It's rather long - oval - normal.
11. What colour is her face?Normal - rather light - rosy cheeks.
12. What colour is her brow?Normal - mainly light like her face.
13. What kind of lips does Our Lady have - rather thick or thin?Normal - beautiful - they are more thin.
14. What colour are they?Reddish - natural colour.
15. Does Our Lady have any dimples, as we people usually have?Ordinarily she doesn't - perhaps a little, if she smiles. (Mirjana)
16. Is there some pleasant smile ordinarily noticeable on her countenance?Maybe - more like some indescribable gentleness - there's a smile visible as if somehow under her skin. (Vicka)
17. What is the colour of Our Lady's eyes?Her eyes are wonderful! Clearly blue. (all)
18. Are they rather big or . . .?More normal - maybe a little bit bigger. (Marija)
19. How are her eyelashes?Delicate - normal.
20. What colour are her eyelashes?Normal - no special colour.
21. Are they thinner or . . .?Ordinary - normal.
22. Of course, Our Lady also has a nose. What is it like: sharp or . . .?A nice, little nose (Mirjana) - normal, harmonizing with her face. (Marija)
23. And Our Lady's eyebrows?Her eyebrows are thin - normal - more of a black colour.
24. How is your Madonna dressed?She is clothed in a simple woman's dress.
25. What colour is her dress?Her dress is grey - maybe a little bluish-grey. (Mirjana)
26. Is the dress tight-fitting or does it fall freely?It falls freely.
27. How far down does her dress reach?All the way down to the little cloud on which she's standing - it blends into the cloud.
28. How far up around the neck?Normally - up to the beginning of her neck.
29. Is a part of Our Lady's neck visible?Her neck is visible, but nothing of her bosom is visible.
30. How far do her sleeves reach?Up to her palms.
31. Is Our Lady's dress hemmed with anything?No, not with anything.
32. Is there anything pulled in or tied around Our Lady's waist?No, there's nothing.
33. On the body of the Madonna that you see, is her femininity noticeable?Of course it's noticeable! But nothing specially. (Vicka)
34. Is there anything else on Our Lady besides this dress described?She has a veil on her head.
35. What colour is that veil?The veil is a white colour.
36. Pure white or . . .?Pure white.
37. How much of her does the veil cover?It covers her head, shoulders and complete body from the back and from the sides.
38. How far down does it reach?It reaches down to the little cloud, also like her dress.
39. How far does it cover in front?It covers from the back and from the sides.
40. Does the veil look firmer, thicker than Our Lady's dress?No it doesn't - it's similar to the dress.
41. Is there any kind of jewellery on her?There is no kind of jewellery.
42. Is the veil trimmed with anything at the ends?Not with anything.
43. Does Our Lady have any kind of ornament at all?She has no kind.
44. For example, on her head or around the head?Yes - she has a crown of stars on her head.
45. Are there always stars around her head?Ordinarily there are - there always are. (Vicka)
46. For example, when she appears with Jesus?She's the same way.
47. How many stars are there?There are twelve of them.
48. What colour are they?Golden - gold colour.
49. Are they in any way connected with each other?They are connected with something - so that can stay up. (Vicka)
50. Is a little bit of Our Lady's hair visible?A little bit of her hair is visible.
51. Where do you see it?A little above her forehead - from under the veil - from the left side.
52. What colour is it?Its black.
53. Is either of Our Lady's ears ever visible?No, they are never visible.
54. How is that?Well, the veil covers her ears.
55. What is Our Lady usually looking at during the apparition?Usually she is looking at us - sometimes at something else, at what she's showing.
56. How does Our Lady hold her hands?Her hands are free, relaxed, extended.
57. When does she hold her hands folded?Almost never - maybe sometimes at the "Glory be".
58. Does she ever move, gesture with her hands during the apparitions?She does not gesture, except when she shows something.
59. Which way are her palms turned when her hands are extended?Her palms are usually relaxed upwards - her fingers are relaxed in the same way.
60. Are her fingernails then also visible?They are partially visible.
61. How are they - which colour are they?Natural colour – clean-cut fingernails.
62. Have you ever seen Our Lady's legs?No - never - her dress always covers them.
63. Finally, is Our Lady really beautiful, as you have said? Well, really we haven't told you anything about that - her beauty cannot be described - it is not our kind of beauty - that is something ethereal - something heavenly - something that we'll only see in Paradise - and then only to a certain degree.
© Information Centre "Mir" Medjugorje,
MEDJUGORJE IN 1981
Medjugorje circa 1981 
