On this website there are several testimonies of God's action in response to the intercessions of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Therefore, the events in Medjugorje will be summarised here in an overview.

On 25 June 1981, Mary appeared to six children and young people between the ages of 10 and 16 in the small village of Medjugorje: Ivanka Ivankovic, Mirjana Dragicevic, Maria Pavlovic, Vicka Ivankovic, Ivan Dragicevic and Jakov Colo. She described herself as the Queen of Peace and emphasised that she had come to remind us of what Jesus told us. Looking back, we can see that the apparition site was located at a religious and cultural flashpoint, at the interface between Catholic Croats, Orthodox Serbs and Muslim Bosnians. At that time, these different peoples were still held together in the communist, areligious and repressive multi-ethnic state of Yugoslavia, 

From the beginning of the apparitions, Mary called people to peace and reconciliation and repeatedly emphasised that this peace could only be achieved through prayer and personal conversion to God. Obviously, these messages were not taken seriously enough by the people: on 25 June 1991, exactly 10 years to the day after the first apparitions, the Balkan war began, which had reached its terrible climax in the genocide (committed by Christians) against the Muslim population in Srebrenica. Yugoslavia broke up into several states, with Medjugorje now located in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In this state, however, there are still population groups of all three ethnicities, with tensions still present. There are also still serious ethnic conflicts in neighbouring Kosovo.

After more than 40 years, Mary still appears daily to three of the original six visionaries (Marija, Vicka and Ivan), although these apparitions usually only last a short time. As a rule, they include a short prayer together and loving contact with each other. Time and again, however, she also gives messages to all people. Mary has a clearly defined goal: she wants to take us to the school of prayer and thereby enable us to build a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus and the Father in heaven. Because of our freedom, God does not intervene in our fate or in the fate of the nations. Figuratively speaking, we can only open the doors for him to intervene in our destiny through prayer. She also repeatedly emphasises that peace within families and nations is only possible through honest reconciliation.

When we realise how difficult it is for us humans to change ingrained behaviour, we can only be grateful that God has given Mary the opportunity to appear to us humans for so long and to help us to use all our strength for peace, reconciliation, mercy and justice in the spirit of Jesus. She has accompanied us on this path for many years now like a mother who accompanies her children because she knows the path that leads to her son Jesus.

God has repeatedly enabled Mary to perform signs and miracles so that the people who come to Medjugorje can believe in the truth of her messages. Some of them are included as testimonies on this website. However, these private testimonies have no scientific relevance.

The situation is different with the elaborate scientific investigations that were carried out on the visionaries during the apparitions. More than 30 originally sceptical scientists who wanted to clarify the phenomenon of the apparitions from a scientific perspective took part in these investigations. The results were surprising and cannot be categorised according to our scientific thought processes [1],[2],[3],[4],[5],[6].

It turned out, for example, that the visionaries actually saw, heard and felt things during the apparitions that could neither be experienced by those around them nor scientifically proven with regard to the triggering causes. However, the fact that they are actually able to "see", "hear" and "feel" something extra-natural has been proven several times using brain wave measurements. One phenomenon in particular is striking: during the apparitions, the voices of all the seers abruptly stop, although they continue to speak normally with Mary, which can be proven by brain wave measurements. At the end of the apparitions, the voices are suddenly audible again. A larynx specialist and neurologists have now proven that the neuronal activation of the vocal cords necessary for speaking is completely normal and yet the innervation of the vocal cords suddenly stops during the conversations with Mary. At the end of the apparitions, the vocal cords of all seers are again innervated synchronously.

The usual causality, which can be derived from the laws of nature, that seeing, hearing or feeling is only possible as a neuronal response to previously incoming stimuli (photons, sound waves and touch stimuli), is cancelled out in an inexplicable way during the apparitions, as is the fact that the measured neuronal speech impulses are not able to trigger any usual reaction in the vocal chords, and only for the duration of the apparitions.

All other psychological and psychiatric examinations available to 21st century science were also carried out on the seers. Although these cannot say anything about the content of the apparitions, they can confirm with great certainty that the seers can see, hear and experience things that defy any scientific interpretation. The research carried out also included examinations under hypnosis in order to be able to verify the veracity of the messages transmitted by Mary.

Mary's endeavours have indeed had a great impact on the faith of countless people.

More than 50 million people have already made a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, and countless others have found faith in God for the first time or have found it again. Thousands of young people come together at the annual five-day youth meetings to pray together and learn about faith; in 2022, over 50,000 young people from 70 countries attended. More than 600 priestly vocations have already been triggered there, and thousands of prayer groups have been set up in almost every country in the world. In a newly built house for "Retreats in Silence", more than 1,200 groups with a total of over 42,000 participants have already held retreats.

The number of people who have found their way back to the sacrament of reconciliation in Medjugorje is also unbelievable. There are around 50 confessionals where, since the beginning of the apparitions, long queues of people have been waiting every day, often for hours, to confess. In this way, millions of people have experienced conversion and reconciliation with God and their fellow human beings through the sacrament of confession.

In addition to strong spiritual impulses, Medjugorje has also given rise to fascinating works of charity. The best-known example is the organisation "Mary's Meals". This aid organisation, founded in 1983, organised and financed a hot lunch for around 2 million children every day (!) in countries affected by hunger and poverty in 2022. They receive this in schools, which has already enabled several generations of children in the world's poorest countries to receive an education.

It is Mary's concern to lead people to God and to enable them to make their contribution to peace, reconciliation and mercy. Many positive things have already happened. But we should all follow this path, and not just those who have already been to Medjugorje...

[1] Laurentin Rene, Joyeux Henri: Medical examinations in Medjugorje, 2nd edition Graz 1987 (German)

[2] Medjugorje, wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen an den Sehern (2022): https://www.medjugorje.de/medjugorje/kirche-zu-medjugorje/aussagen/wissenschaftliche-und-medizinische-untersuchungen/wissenschaftliche-untersuchungen/

[3] Resch Andreas: The visionaries of Medjugorje in the focus of science, Innsbruck 2005 (Series R; 3) (German) -  https://www.imagomundi.biz/die-seher-von-medjugorje/

[4] Resch Andreas, Innsbruck, 2021 https://www.imagomundi.biz/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Die-Seher-von-Medjugorje-im-Griff-der-Wiss-Unbekannt.pdf

[5] Frigerio Luigi, Mattalia Giacomo, Bianchi Luigi: Dossier scientifico su Medjugorje. Presentazione di Flaminio Piccoli. Milano: ARPA (Associazione Regina della Pace), Paina di Giussano, 1986

[6] https://www.medjugorje.de/medjugorje/kirche-zu-medjugorje/aussagen/wissenschaftliche-und-medizinische-untersuchungen/prof-pater-andreas-resch/

Picture sources: Picture 1 - 2: Laurentin Rene, Joyeux Henri, s.o. // Picture 3 - 5: Resch Andreas, Innsbruck, 2021, s.o.