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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Our Lady of Medjugorje (Croatian: Međugorska Gospa), also called Queen of Peace (Croatian: Kraljica mira) and Mother of the Redeemer (Croatian: Majka Otkupiteljica), is the title given to the "visions" of the Blessed Virgin Mary which allegedly began in 1981 to six Herzegovinian teenagers in Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina (at the time in SFR Yugoslavia). The visionaries are: Ivan Dragičević, Ivanka Ivanković, Jakov Čolo, Marija Pavlović, Mirjana Dragičević and Vicka Ivanković and ranged in age from ten to sixteen years old at the time of the first apparition.
Our Lady of Medjugorje | |
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Location | Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina and a number of other locations |
Date | 24 June 1981 – ongoing |
Witness |
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Type | Marian apparition |
Approval | Pending decision by the Holy See |
Shrine | Medjugorje |
There have also been continued reports of the visionaries seeing and receiving messages from the apparition of Our Lady (Gospa) during the years since. The seers often refer to the apparition as the "Gospa", which is a Croatian archaism for lady. On May 13, 2017, a papal response came when Pope Francis declared that the original visions reported by the teenagers are worth studying in more depth, while the subsequent continued visions over the years are, in his view, of dubious value.[1] He went on to say that there are people who go there, convert, find God and their lives change. He said that this is a spiritual and pastoral fact that cannot be denied.[2] As a pastoral initiative, after considering the considerable number of people who go to Medjugorje and the abundant fruits of grace that have sprung from it,[3] the ban on officially organized pilgrimages was lifted by the Pope in May 2019. This was made official with the celebration of a youth festival among pilgrims and Catholic clergy in Medjugorie for five days in August 2019.[4] However this was not to be interpreted as an authentication of known events, which still require examination by the Church.[3]