QUEEN OF PEACE, MEDJUGORJE

Day 258: January 25

Queen of Peace (Kraljice Mira), Medjugorje, Citluk,

Herzegovina-Neretva, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia

Medjugorje is located in Herzegovina, the Croatian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the Republics that formed the former Yugoslavia. The population of Herzegovina is of Croatian ethnicity and professes the Catholic religion, which has preserved itself during almost four hundred years of Turkish domination, approximately from the first half of the 1400's until the second half of the 1800's.

This perseverance was made possible above all thanks to the Franciscans who evangelized those lands and kept the faith alive during the rule of the Turks, at the cost of the life of many friars. Still today most of the parishes are entrusted to the Franciscans.

On June 24, 1981, in the late afternoon, two girls first, and then four other companions, just outside the town of Bijakovici, one of the hamlets that make up the town of Medjugorje and which is located on the slopes of the hill called Podbrdo, saw the luminous figure of a young woman, with a gray robe and a white veil, who had an infant child in her arms, who remained silent. They were seized with great fear, so much so that they at first fled.

The next day, June 25, 1981, some of these youth, as if driven by an inner force, returned to the place at the same time, around 6.40pm. Six of them there, including four who had seen her the previous day plus two others who had joined on that second day, saw her again, and this time they were filled with great joy.

These youths are the ones who kept seeing the Lady from then on. In fact, they saw her again in the following days in the same place and at the same time for about a week, until the police (it was in full communist regime) surrounded the hill preventing anyone from accessing it.

From that moment the youth themselves continued to see her in different places, always because of the impediment procured by the police, both together and separately, but always at the same time. The places were their homes from time to time and for a certain period, a small room next to the altar in the church, the rectory, etc.

Today all these visionaries are married. Vicka has two children and lives in Citluc, near Medjugorje. Mirjana has two children and lives in Medjugorje. Marija has four children and, having married an Italian, lives in Italy, in Monza. Ivan has four children and, having married an American girl, lives most of the time in Boston, USA. Jakov has three children. He married an Italian girl but most of the time he lives with his wife in Medjugorje. Three of these seers: Vicka, Marija and Ivan still have, apparently separately today, the daily apparitions always at the same time wherever they are.bvFor the other three, however, the daily apparitions have ended, but everyone still has at least once a year.

For Ivanka, the annual apparition takes place to coincide with the anniversary of the beginning of the apparitions, on June 25th. For Jakov, the Christmas of the Lord, takes place on December 25th. Finally, for Mirjana it takes place on March 18th, the day that coincides with her birthday. Moreover, for some years, Mirjana is said to have an apparition every second of the month.

The official anniversary of the beginning of the apparitions is June 25, because the appearance on day 24, in a certain sense, can only be defined as preparation.

Already in the very first days of the apparitions, Our Lady presented herself as the Blessed Virgin Mary and as the Queen of Peace. She also gave the visionaries this fundamental message: “I came to tell the world that God exists and that there is life in God. Those who find God will find peace and life. “

On several occasions she then returned to this topic saying essentially: “You seek peace, happiness, life on streets where you will never find it. Seek God and in Him you will find peace, happiness, life.”

To one of the visionaries, Marija Pavlovic, Our Lady, from March 1, 1984 and until January 8, 1987, gave a message every Thursday. Since January 25, 1987, these messages have become monthly and are still given today on the 25th of each month. Initially these messages were mainly addressed to the parish of Medjugorje, but then they were and are directed to the whole world.

Even in Mirjana, on the occasion of the annual apparition of March 18 and those of the 2nd of each month, Our Lady is said to give a message, also for the world.

A short message is also generally given to the remaining two visionaries, Ivanka and Jakov, who have an annual appearance. The purpose of these messages is to persistently call all humanity, that is all of us, to the urgency of returning to the Gospel as a criterion of life, if we want to prevent the world from falling into catastrophe.

Our Lady also communicated to these youths what are commonly defined as “secrets” which are mostly serious events which will occur if humanity will not convert. However, we can, if not cancel them, at least mitigate them with prayer and fasting.

Unlike what happened, for example, with the secrets of Fatima, every secret of Medjugorje will be communicated to the world three days before it occurs, to prove the truthfulness of the warning, but at that point it will be too late to change its course.

There are many witnesses of great spiritual fruits, which according to a widely shared opinion, these apparitions and the messages that radiate from Medjugorje all over the world have brought these fruits of conversion to us and to many other people.

St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"Glory to you, O Divine Mother, O Mary! Glory to God the Son in you, O Mary. Through our union with you, obtain that we may enter, remain and ever grow more in the grace of adopted brotehrs of Jesus Christ, for the greater Glory of God the Son."

(Justin Russolillo, Spirit of Prayer, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, Newark, 1996, p. 155)