Medjugorje, Bosnia / 1981 - Present

The greatest, and most dangerous false "Marian" apparition in Christian history, (and which continues to this very day) is that said to be taking place at Medjugorje, in Bosnia Hercegovina, formerly Yugoslavia. Medjugorje is so insidious that it has captured under its spell numerous Catholic clergy of every rank, all the way up to the current Pope (Benedict XVI) and his immediate predecessor, John Paul II.

On June 24, 1981, two teenage girls, Mirjana Dragicevic, and Ivanka Ivankovic who came together for an illicit smoke (and later lied on audio tape to the Bishop of Mostar about it, which has been preserved for all posterity) claimed to have seen "a bright figurine" on the slope of Mt. Podbro. Eventually they collected several of their friends to witness the strange sight, but by the next day a group of six permanent "visionaries" coalesced who would claim daily apparitions of "Our Lady Queen of Peace" up to this very writing. In addition to Mirjana and Ivanka, the other four kids were Vicka Ivankovic (no relation to Ivanka), Ivan Dragicevic (no relation to Mirjana), Maria Pavlovic, and Jacov Colo. With the exception of Jacov, who was 10 years old at the time, all the visionaries were teenagers when the Medjugorje "phenomenon" began.

The "Queen of Peace", as they title "Our Lady" in their "apparitions", has appeared nearly 100,000 times to these "seers" to tell everybody to pray, fast, and convert. The prize that keeps the duped duped regarding Medjugorje lies hidden in a prophetic package of "ten secrets", which will only begin to materialize when all six of the visionaries receive their final apparitions (which, if history is any indication, does not appear to be anytime soon). To keep the suspense building, one by one certain visionaries claimed to have received all10 of the secrets from "Our Lady" and stopped having daily apparitions (although they receive an annual apparition on their birthdays, with the exception of Mirjana who continues to "see" Our Lady on the second of every month as well, and Jakov who also is favored with one every Christmas Day). The tally of which visionary has however many secrets reads like a billboard at the Olympic games: Mirjana, 10; Ivanka, 10; Jakov, 10; Marija 9; Ivan, 9; Vicka, 10. It is believed that Marija is next to receive the 10th "secret" (and cessation of daily "apparitions"), which will leave Ivan as the sole "seer" to continue to have daily visions until the visionaries and the Franciscan priests involved with Medjugorje from the get-go can figure out how to make "a Sign" appear on the mountain of the original "apparitions" that will withstand scientific scrutiny so it can be declared "miraculous." The major problem with this "Sign" remains this: Ivan lied about the "Sign" at the very beginning of the events because he claimed (on audio tape to the Bishop of Mostar, preserved for all posterity) the apparitions would stop after three days, leaving the Sign behind for the unbelievers. When the other "seers" realized what Ivan had done, they had to perpetuate the apparitions until they could figure out how to produce this "Sign" which "the Queen of Peace" promised to the world on the day after the final apparition to the last remaining seer. Hence, the prolongation of the Medjugorje "apparitions" up till now, thirty years later.

In addition to this major screw-up, other cracks have continued to form in the ongoing drama of these "seers" as they try to perpetuate the fraud until one or all of them either break under the pressure (which is considerable) or their Franciscan saviors can deliver the promised "miraculous Sign." We will get to these in a minute. The greatest trouble that remains, to put it lightly, is how they are going to stage 10 apocalyptic-style world events to correspond with their 10 "secrets?"

Well, obviously they can't; but that doesn't mean they don't have buffers in place to cover their derrieres. The "seers" are each allowed to tell a priest of their choosing each secret the day before the "prophecy" in the secret takes place. The priest, however, is not allowed to make the secret public until after the event in the secret takes place. In other words, when something catastrophic happens in the future, and we are told afterwards that it was foretold in a Medjugorje "secret", we are supposed to believe it solely on the word of this particular priest. To anyone who considers themself to be a serious student of the Marian apparition phenomena, history proves from genuine, Church-approved apparitions, that Our Lady does not operate this way. Even at GARABANDAL, where the Warning, the Miracle, the Sign, and the Chastisement are secrets, Our Lady allows enough information about them to be publicized, so that we will recognize them when they do occur. It is only particulars about these secrets that we are not privvy to beforehand.

As far as screw-ups go on the part of individual "visionaries" of Medjugorje, let us take a look at a few that die-hard believers in the "apparitions" refuse to acknowledge, and those behind the scenes at Medjugorje make sure you don't find out about.

Vicka, considered to be the principal "seer" at Medjugorje, was supposedly having an apparition of "Our Lady" and was in "ecstasy", a trance-state that visionaries usually undergo that renders them completely insensible to outside stimuli; in other words, Vicka is not supposed to be able to see, hear, or feel anything of the outside world during an "apparition", and much has been made of "medical tests" on the seers that claim to support this fact. However, on this particular day a witness decided to test this "fact" and completely blind-sided her, stabbing two fingers at her eyes. Vicka reacted as any normal person would: she blinked, jerked backwards, and raised her arms upwards. Then, without warning, she jumped to her feet and ran out of the room. After consulting with her mentor-priest on how to salvage this gaff, she returned to the room and explained that "the Child Jesus was falling out of Our Lady's arms" and Vicka had instinctively reacted to catch Him. There are several obvious problems with this explanation, not the least of them being that we are supposed to believe that the Mother of God would "drop" Her Divine Son, or that the Creator of the Universe Who holds everything in place would put Himself in a haphazard position that would enable Him to fall out of His Mother's arms!