June 25, 2020 are 39 years of the apparitions of Medjugorje. What happened in the first seven days?

Before June 24, 1981 Medjugorje (which in Croatian means "in the mountains" and is pronounced Megiugorie) is only a tiny peasant village lost in a harsh and desolate corner of the former Yugoslavia. Since that date, everything has changed and that village has become one of the most important centers of popular religion in Christianity.

What happened on June 24, 1981? For the first time (the first in a long series still in progress), Our Lady appeared to a group of local boys to deliver a message of peace and conversion to the whole world through prayer and fasting.

Apparitions Of Medjugorje: The First Day
It is the late afternoon of Wednesday 24 June 1981, the feast of St. John the Baptist, when six children between 12 and 20 years old are walking on Mount Crnica (today called the Hill of Apparitions) and in a stony area called Podbrdo they see appear in the evanescent figure of a beautiful and luminous young woman with a child in her arms. The six young people are Ivanka Ivanković (15 years), Mirjana Dragićević (16 years), Vicka Ivanković (16 years), Ivan Dragićević (16 years), 4 of the 6 current visionaries, plus Ivan Ivanković (20 years) and Milka Pavlović (12 years). They understand immediately that it is the Madonna, even if the apparition does not speak and only gives them the nod to approach, but they are very afraid and run away. At home they tell the story but the adults, frightened by the possible consequences (let's not forget that the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia was officially atheist), tell them to shut up.

Apparitions Of Medjugorje: The Second Day
The news, however, is so sensational that it spreads quickly in the village and the following day, 25 June '81, a group of onlookers gathered in the same place and at the same time in the hope of a new apparition, which was not long in coming. Among them are the boys from the night before except Ivan Ivanković and Milka, who will no longer see Our Lady despite participating in subsequent Apparitions. I am instead Marija Pavlović (16 years old), Milka's older sister, and the little Jakov Čolo of 10 years to see with the other 4 the "Gospa", the Madonna, who this time appears on a cloud and without a child, always beautiful and bright . The group of six visionaries chosen by the Blessed Virgin is so firmly formed, and that is why the anniversary of the Apparitions is celebrated on June 25 of each year, as expressly decided by the Virgin herself.

This time, at the sign of the Gospa, all 6 young visionaries run fast among stones, brambles and brushwood towards the top of the mountain. Although the path was not marked, they do not even scratch and they will then tell the rest of the participants that they had felt "carried" by a mysterious force. The Madonna appears smiling, dressed in a shiny silver-gray dress, with a white veil covering her black hair; she has loving blue eyes and is crowned with 12 stars. Her voice is sweet "like music". Exchange some words with the boys, pray with them and promise to return.

Apparitions Of Medjugorje: The Third Day
On Friday 26 June 1981 more than 1000 people gather, attracted by a bright glow. Vicka, at the suggestion of some elders, throws a bottle of blessed water on the apparition to verify whether the figure is a celestial or demonic entity. "If you are Our Lady, stay with us, if you are not, go away!" he exclaims forcefully. Our Lady smiles and at Mirjana's direct question, "What's your name?", For the first time she says "I am the Blessed Virgin Mary". Repeats the word "Peace" several times and, having finished the apparition, while the visionaries leave the hill, he appears again only to Marija, this time crying and with the Cross behind him. His words are sadly premonitory: “The world can only be saved through Peace, but the whole world will have peace only if it finds God. God is there, tell everyone. Reconcile yourselves, make yourselves brothers ... ". Ten years later, on 26 June 1991, the Balkan War broke out, a fierce and inhuman war right in the heart of Europe that completely redesigns Yugoslavia.

Apparitions Of Medjugorje: The Fourth Day
Saturday 27 June 81 young people are summoned to the police office and undergo a first long interrogation which also includes medical and psychiatric tests, at the end of which they are declared perfectly sane. Once freed, they run to the hill so as not to miss the fourth apparition. Our Lady answers various questions on the role of priests ("They must be firm in the Faith and help you, they must protect the faith of the people") and on the need to believe even without having seen the apparitions.

Apparitions Of Medjugorje: The Fifth Day
Sunday, June 28, 1981, a large crowd of people from all neighboring areas starts to gather from the early hours, so much so that at noon there are more than 15.000 people waiting for the Apparition: an impressive spontaneous gathering that has no precedent in a country Communist-led. Blessed Vergina appears happy, prays with the visionaries and answers their questions.

Sunday is also the day when the parish priest of Medjugorje, Father Jozo Zovko, returned from a journey and amazed by what he is told, questions the visionaries to evaluate their good faith. Initially he is skeptical and fears that it will be a mount of the communist regime to discredit the Church, but the words of the young people, so spontaneous and without contradictions, slowly win his reservations even if he decides to use prudence at the moment and not blindly support the six boys.

Apparitions Of Medjugorje: The Sixth Day
Monday 29 June 1981 is the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, deeply felt by the Croatian population. The six young visionaries are picked up again by the police and taken to the psychiatric ward of Mostar hospital, where 12 doctors are waiting for them to undergo another psychiatric examination. The authorities hope that their mental illness will be established but the doctor who leads this medical team, among other things of Muslim faith, declares that it is not the kids who are crazy but rather those who led them there. In her report to the secret police she writes that she was particularly impressed by little Jacov and his courage: the more he was accused of telling falsehoods, the more he proved firm and unshakable in his statements, without betraying any fear but rather showing an unshakable trust in the Madonna , for which he is willing to give his life. "If there is a manipulation in those guys, I could not expose it."

During the apparition that evening, a 3-year-old boy, Danijel Šetka, was seriously ill with septicemia, unable to speak and walk. The parents, desperate, ask for the intercession of the Madonna to heal the little one and she agrees but asks that the whole community and in particular the two parents pray, fast and live an authentic faith. Danijel's condition progressively improves and by the end of summer the child is able to walk and speak. This is the first of a long series of miraculous healings that are several hundred to date.

Apparitions Of Medjugorje: The Seventh Day
On Tuesday 30 June the six young visionaries do not show up at the usual time at the foot of the hill. What happened? In the afternoon two girls sent by the Sarajevo government (worried by the influx of people that the events of Medjugorje are recalling and convinced that it is a clerical and nationalist mount of the Croats) propose to the visionaries to take a drive in the surroundings, with the secret intent to keep them away from the place of the Apparitions. Tried by all the vicissitudes and unaware of the plot, the young visionaries accept this opportunity for recreation, except Ivan who stays at home. At the "usual time" they are still around, far from Podbrdo, but they feel like an inner urgency, they stop the car and get out. A light is seen on the horizon and the Madonna appears there, on a cloud, goes to meet them and prays with them. Back in town they go to the rectory where Father Jozo interrogates them again. The two “conspiratorial” girls are also present, shocked to have seen those luminous phenomena in the sky. They will no longer work with law enforcement.

From that day the police forbid the access of the boys and the crowd to the Podbrdo, the place of the apparitions. But this earthly ban does not stop divine phenomena and the Virgin continues to appear in different places.

Apparitions Of Medjugorje: The Eighth Day
July 1, 1981 is a hectic day: the visionaries' parents are summoned to the police offices and face threats to their children called "impostors, visionaries, troublemakers and rebels". In the afternoon, two people in charge of the municipality show up with a van at Vicka's house and pick her up, Ivanka and Marija on the pretext of accompanying them to the rectory, but they lie and when they arrive at the church they continue the journey. The girls protest and beat their fists against the windows but suddenly they become estranged and have a fleeting appearance in which Our Lady encourages them not to be afraid. The two municipal officials realize that something strange has happened and bring the three girls back to the rectory.
That day Jacov, Mirjana and Ivan have the apparition at home.

This is the short story of the first apparitions of Medjugorje, which still continue.