Medjugorge: Mountains, Masses and Miracles

The Drive into Bosnia was without a doubt one of contrasts... From the sublime sunny stretches of the Makarska riviera we wound our way up the rugged hill and disappeared into the mountains, climbing higher and higher till we were even in the clouds. The Scenery went from pristine seaside, to lush hillside, brutal and barren mountainside to what seemed almost like a mountainous desert through the highlands, where very little could grow. The towns went from tourist meccas with luxury boats, to forgotten hill towns with rutted roads and run-down, rusty old cars. All at once the sun was gone and we entered very dark clouds, the sun banished behind them and with it, the pleasant temperatures. Rain was soon misting on the windscreen, then flooding over us and I think we both began to wonder what we were heading for. But then, out of the clouds came a sign, a rainbow, which was received with as much joy and promise as Noah's was... The showers passed and the sun returned as we entered Bosnia and followed the signs towards Medjugorge.

I was a little uncertain what to expect going to Medjugorge. To be fair, though it is probably the most well known Catholic pilgrimage site outside of Rome itself, I knew very little about the place. To my knowledge, the Virgin Mary (Mother of Jesus) has appeared here since 1981, initially just to a few children, who are now adults, some of whom still enjoy regular visitations with the 'mother of the church'. I guess to be honest, such visitations aren't an overly important aspect of my faith. That Mary would choose to appear to some humble villagers in (what was) a small town in the middle of the mountains of Bosnia is I guess interesting, but as with many things in the spiritual realm, I neither understand it, nor try to. I don't see any great reason why these folk would make such stories up, and certainly the messages they convey are not especially outstanding either. Mary asks the church to pray for the salvation of the world, to pray for peace and talks of the necessity of faith, prayer, conversion, and fasting among other such enigmatic causes. I'm not especially sceptical of the messages, but I guess not especially faithful to them either. I guess you could say my position to them is somewhat like that of an Agnostic towards faith in general. Which interestingly enough is also the official Catholic church position on the visits. Mary doesn't appear to be offended by this though, if you'll pardon the pun!! If the holiday had been entirely of my own design I probably would not have gone, but Gwen, my mother in law, is a passionate advocate for the virtues of the place and follows the messages and visionary stuff closely... so it sparked a bit of an interest for us.

Medjugorge nowadays is quite a thriving wee town. Laid on top of the series of small villages, is a series of not especially pretty accomodations for the million visitors who come to the site every year... but then, people don't come here for the great accomodation! The place has received more than 16-20 million visitors since the apparitions began (depending on which site you look at!), and even in the midst of the brutal war the site received more than 200,000 visitors a year!! This makes it fairly huge as a place for spiritual revival. But as with any similar site, the critics are vocal and numerous. It's true that most of the people who come to Medjugorge are believers already, but there are many like myself who are simply curious and plenty that come with no faith at all, and among those visitors, the conversion stories abound. More confessions (of people's sins) are heard in Medjugorje than in any other parish of the entire world, which I guess is some evidence that Mary's message of reconciliation is getting through; more than 150 confessors work without interruption here every day. In the year 1990 (before the outbreak of civil war), 1,900,000 people took Communion; 30,000 priests and bishops have visited the site. (my thanks to the internet sites I got the stats from!!!)

Aesthetically, the place does little to draw you. I suspect Medjugorge has suffered a little from the rapid growth it has experienced, with streets being overrun with tour buses and dozens and dozens (and dozens) of tacky souveneir shops that you both love and hate. Love cos they draw you in to look at hundreds of religious pictures and statues, rosary beads, magnets, t-shirts etc etc, Hate because it seems to demean the spiritual nature of the place and commercialises (in a gawdy way) what was formerly (likely) a pleasant little farming village. I suspect the villagers wouldn't go back though!

The afternoon we got there we found our way to our accomodation, caught up with Gwen, then went for a wander up the hill where the apparitions are said to take place. There are bronze plaques along the way which depict the various mysteries of the rosary (if you've no idea what a mystery of the rosary is, either join an RCIA programme or e-mail mez (cos I won't be able to explain it properly!) Basically you wander up, stop at each plaque and pray the rosary - which is an incantation said to honour the position of Mary as mother of Jesus and to ask her to pray for us. Catholics believe that you can pray to God, through the intercession of various Saints who are in heaven already, and ask them to ask God to help you out... (I guess it's a bit like texting a mate who is at a party and getting them to ask the doorman to let you in, or at least to listen to your story...) The words of the 'Hail Mary' are:

Hail Mary, full of grace - The Lord is with you

Blessed are you among women,

and Blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, mother of God

Pray for us, sinners,

Now and at the hour of our death.

Amen

I guess the Amen at the end of it makes it sound like a prayer, but strictly speaking I don't think it is, but rather a supplication to Mary. Anyway, my own experience of 'praying' the rosary has always been pretty simple. I feel peaceful afterwards. Perhaps it's the repetitive nature of repeating the same words over and again. Perhaps its the time you take out to clear your thoughts, perhaps it's something more than that. I don't know. But I do feel peaceful. So we wandered up the rocky hillside and prayed the rosary. In the mysteries, one is meant to reflect on the various scenes from Jesus' life (which are what the 'mysteries' are), but as we had no idea what they were and couldn't make them out from the bronze pictures (as beautiful as they were) we elected to make up our own reflections and points to ponder... namely our future steps for the next year or two... The statue pictured right is at the place where the first visitation happened. And where some visitations still happen. Interestingly enough, you can go and sit with the visionaries (as they are called who see Mary) when they are having their time with her... just that they are the only one's who see her. (You can see why there are sceptics!) Anyway the walk was nice, and after that, we met Gwen down at the main basilica for Adoration.

Adoration is another interesting Catholic practice. Catholics believe that when the priest blesses the bread and wine during their communion services, that the bread and wine are transformed into the 'actual' body and blood of Christ. That is the substance of the elements has changed... Catholics then put the little bit of Jesus into a display case and gather around 'Jesus' in His little display case. You might be able to make out a star shaped thing in the centre of the quite dark photo on the left. That is one such display case (a 'monstrance' - how is got such a monstrous name I have no idea!). What you don't get from the photo is how big the place is, and how many thousands of people were there, on no particularly special saturday evening! Amazing. The shot below shows the same area from a hill in the distance - it seats a staggering number of people.

The following morning we got up early to head up the hill called Krizevac. Krizevac marks the side of the town from which the worst weather generally comes, and after a series of crop disasters due to severe frosts killing everything, villagers decided to erect a gigantic cross to protect the town and it's crops from the weather. The cross was erected in 1933, (to mark the 1900th anniversary of the passion and death of Jesus) and there have been no failed crops since! Pilgrims now wander up the hill, where more bronze plaques have been put up to remind people of the 15 stations of the cross (15 poignant moments leading up to the death of Jesus, what is sometimes referred to as the 'Passion' of Christ. the one pictured is Jesus falling while carrying the cross). Some people do it in bare feet as a penance. Penance is a funny thing. It is done as a sign of true sorrow for sin, though I suspect some would think of it as atoning for sin (which it does not... according to Christian teaching). It comes in various forms, walking up rocky hills in bare feet is one form (they do similar things on Mt Craig Patrick in Ireland - see earlier blog!), praying lots of special prayers is another, some people even beat themselves - a process called self flagellation which was made famous latterly by an Albino Monk in Dan Brown's book and film: 'The Da Vinci Code'.

We went early cos it gets super hot during the day wandering up the rocky path. Great walk, and great views of the town below from 520m above sea level. Abbey seemed to enjoy it too, though got a bit frustrated by the wind at the top, and did her usual trick of filling the nappies so we had to do an emergency change half way down. We also managed to pick up a guide for our wee journey - a wee local dog, who clearly knew the way, and thought we needed company, or guidance, or perhaps just amusement. He was a nice friend along the way though, and we bid him a fond fairwell as he trotted off home at the bottom. The cross isn't actually crooked, our stitching is, and it towers over 8.5m tall (I think our stitching misses a bit of height!) but you get the idea!

Mass in the Basilica is done on a strict hourly schedule to fit in all the various pilgrims of all the various languages, and a rota of what language is at what hour is posted earlier in the week. Ours was in the early afternoon so we had time after our wander for a quick shower, feed for Abbey and rest, before heading out into the blazing sun again to wander to church. The mass itself was ok. Celebrated by a Scottish priest who had not really been particularly interested in coming to the place, but was dragged along by a keen parishoner, who he thanked in his Homily, after imploring the rest of us to live our faith in the simple acts of love to those around us. On trying to make our way out of the church we had another of those strange encounters where random strangers wanted to take our photo, to get a shot of the baby at Medjugorge. The woman literally broke down in tears, I got the impression this was not simply how beautiful Abbey was, but also that she had a son who was uninterested in coming to Medjugorge and had used his small baby as an excuse to get out of going. Bummer for him we went eh? No excuses now laddie!

Next on the agenda was a bit of a wander to see a magnificant bronze statue which shows Jesus rising from the dead (the hollow where he lay behind him). This was only erected ten years or so ago, but ever since it has been there, the statue has sweated from his right knee. This I had heard of, but wanted to see with my own eyes. As you watch, beads of perspiration form at various places along his right shin and slowly drip towards the ground, usually wiped by someone with their Medjugorge handkerchief purchased at the souveneir shop for that purpose. (As Mez is demonstrating - without the handkercheif!!) Myself, I wiped my finger on it, which has had eczema for many years, to see if it would heal it. At the time, my finger was cracked and exceedingly sore. Slowly after that, it healed up and, touch wood i haven't had any eczema there since. I'm not yet sure if it is healed forever or not, but there was eczema and there isn't anymore, so I hope so. A most bizarre thing to watch though. Statues don't perspire (even when it is as hot as it was - mid 30's). Call it what you like! The shot below shows the perspiration (or whatever it is) running down the leg, the drop being just in front of the dark patch towards the bottom of the frame. Miracle??

Along the way to the statue are some stunning mosaics depicting the miracles of Jesus such as this one showing him changing water into wine at a wedding at Cana, in Galilee. The best party trick ever recorded!!!

And that pretty much sums up our experience of Medjugorge. Or mine at least. I'm happy we went. I know more now about the place and the messages, than I did before I went. It's not the most visually exciting place in the world, but sure gives you a few things to ponder, as well as mountains to climb while you're doing it.