Medjugorje
Medjugorje, municipality of Citluk, West Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina
A West Herzegovina village that became one of Europe's busiest Catholic pilgrimage sites after six children reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1981, now operating under a Vatican nihil obstat that permits devotion without ruling on the apparitions.
Medjugorje was a farming village in Herzegovina until June 24, 1981, when six local children reported seeing the Virgin Mary on a hillside above the parish, beginning a series of reported apparitions that some of the visionaries say continue to this day. Within a few years the village was a destination for pilgrims from around the world, and its landscape reorganized around three places of prayer: the parish church of St James with its outdoor altar and confession areas, Podbrdo (Apparition Hill), a rough rocky slope where pilgrims climb at dawn praying the rosary, and Krizevac (Cross Mountain), crowned by a large cross raised in 1934.
The Church's handling has been long and careful. Popes sent apostolic visitors, pilgrimages were informally tolerated while not adjudicated, and on September 19, 2024 the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, with Pope Francis's authorization, issued the note The Queen of Peace, granting a nihil obstat for Medjugorje's pastoral promotion: pilgrims may be organized and the devotion encouraged, while the Vatican deliberately made no judgment about whether the apparitions are supernatural. That two-track status is the entry's spine: a global devotion running at full scale, on a Vatican-authorized basis, around events the institution has declined to confirm. The apparitions are presented here as the visionaries' and pilgrims' claim throughout.
Visiting
The parish of St James publishes the current schedules. The three prayer areas are the parish church of St James with its outdoor altar and confession areas, Apparition Hill (Podbrdo), and Cross Mountain (Krizevac). Daily mass, confession, and adoration times vary by season and peak in summer, with anniversary events in late June. There is no ticketed access; the Apparition Hill path is steep and rocky, so wear shoes with grip. Check the parish site for current mass times before visiting.
Photo: Vincenzo Fileccia, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Candles_in_Medjugorje.jpg))
Associated traditions & practices
Visitor stories