Finbar O'Leary with visionary, Vicka Ivankovic-Mijatovic. Finbar O’Leary
It was the Feast of St John the Baptist on the June 24, 1981, when the young visionaries had their first encounter with Our Lady or Gospa in Croatian. Frightened and bewildered they ran away. Returning the following evening Vicka still only 16 years of age and the eldest of the six carried a jar of holy water given to her by her grandmother. In her enthusiasm, Vicka splashed the contents over Our Lady, saying at the same time; “if you are from Heaven stay with us and if you are from Hell go away.”
Our Lady smiling introduced Herself saying “I am the Blessed Virgin Mary” and that she wished to be known here under the title ‘Queen of Peace’. Our Lady continued “I have come to remind the world that God exists and man must return to God or face the consequences.”
The Franciscan Order called Fr Slavko Barbaric a trained psychologist, home from his work in Switzerland, to examine the children, on the order’s behalf. He remained as their Spiritual Director until his death on November 24, 2000. Our Lady’s words during the apparition to Marija the following evening were; “Today your brother Slavko has been born into heaven.”
During this period the many religious and ethnic groups who made up the former Yugoslavia had been living in a tenuous peace and no one could understand Our Lady’s constant appeal for prayers for peace. Then on the tenth anniversary of the apparitions as the visionary Marija made her way down the hillside and was surrounded by huge crowds of pilgrims Marija unexpectedly had a second apparition with Our Lady during which she made her strongest appeal yet again for peace. The following day the evil carnage of war was unleashed in Bosnia.
Extraordinary phenomena became a regular occurrence for the visionaries, local people and pilgrims alike. The Croatian word “MIR” which means peace appeared in huge gold letters in the beautiful clear sky and could be seen in towns and villages far and wide. Pilgrims were now coming in their thousands from all over the world.
Then began the great phenomenon of the sun, similar to that experienced by the people of Fatima all those years ago. Every evening before the time of the apparition, the sun still high in the sky would begin to spin and pulsate from the heavens down towards the earth. This became a daily occurrence. Amazingly those watching would have their own personal experiences. Some would see a cross in the centre of the sun, others might see the Host and others would see Jesus or perhaps Our Lady. This particular miracle occurred for many years and was experienced by all present regardless of gender or age.
In Medjugorje healings of one kind or another seem to occur on a daily basis for yourself or those around you. To be whole, mentally, physically, and most importantly spiritually was the old English term used. The great miracle of Confession occurred following Marija’s apparition on the hillside. Marija was making her way home through a communal trashing field and was followed, as always by some of the crowd. Our Lady suddenly appeared to her. One woman among the crowd was a local doctor, very much in the communist mould. This woman asked if she could touch Our Lady. Our Lady consented saying there were always some doubting Thomases. Marija guided the doctor’s hand to where Our Lady was. As she as she touched Our Lady a strong tingling something similar to an electric shock ran though her body. With that everyone wanted to touch Our Lady. One by one Marija guided them to where Our Lady stood. After a short while Marija began to sob uncontrollably and when asked why she said as each person touched Our Lady’s beautiful white gown they left a filthy black stain upon it, the mark of their sinfulness. Ashamed by the event a young neighbour of Marija’s said let us all go to the parish and ask the priest to hear our Confessions.
That weekend thousands of people who had not been to Confession for 10 or 20 or 30 years poured their hearts out in contrition. The handful of parish priests phoned for help to their brother priests in Bosnia and Croatia till finally almost 200 priests came to help with their Confessions. These good men were astonished by the depth and sincerity of the people. This call, this feeling of wanting to make peace continues to this day.
The Communist government fearful of the huge crowds gathering arrested the parish priest Fr Jozo. Fr Jozo had refused the communist demands to close the church. He was most cruelly mentally and physically tortured in prison in Mostar. His jailers to their annoyance discovered their failure to restrain him despite being shackled to the wall at night, his cell door would be open in the morning and the shackles lying useless on the ground. The Spirit of the Lord could not be confined. Our Lady has said that Fr Jozo would be a saint in heaven long before he would be recognised as a saint on earth.
Our Lady’s requests to the visionaries for all of us were becoming more precise. She asked that we fast on bread and water every Wednesday and Friday. Then Our Lady said that we should pray for at least four hours a day. The priests when they heard this put the question to Our Lady through the visionaries; “Blessed Mother, if we say this surely all the people will run away?” The Gospa replied very seriously. “No. No. After all it is only 1/6th of the day.” Our Lady is asking from us every day that we pray the seven Our Fathers, Hail Mary’s and Glory Be’s for peace, three full rosaries and if at all possible we should attend Holy Mass. She has also asked that we pray at the beginning of our prayer The Profession of Faith -“The I believe in God”- and she has asked that we go back to the good habits of wearing a blessed object and the use of Holy Water for the warding off of evil. The Gospa is telling us how enraged Satan the devil is at Her great plan in Medjugorje for the saving of souls and he is trying his best to destroy it. Gospa also said that we should read from the Bible everyday, especially every Thursday to read Matthew 6:24-34.
Sadly for want of space I must confine so many extraordinary events to sharing with you an event simultaneously experienced by the visionaries and the good people of Medjugorje on the feast of the Holy Angels in the 80s. On this night with a huge crowd on the hillside, the visionaries were shown every star in the night sky come crashing down and exploding on the hill, with each individual spark becoming a heavenly angel. The visionary Marija described to me this extraordinary event. Simultaneously all the crowd present experienced the stars crashing and exploding until it seemed that the very hillside itself became a ball of flame, they huddled together terrified thinking that this is surely the end of the world.
Our Lady has told the visionaries that Medjugorje will be the last apparition of this kind and when she stops coming God will leave a permanent sign on the hillside and all will understand that it is a sign from heaven. The sign will be visible to everyone but then it will be too late for many.
Finbar O’Leary is the author of a number of books on Medjugorje including ‘Meeting with Our Lady of Medjugorje’ available from Columba Books.