Medjugorje: The Queen of Peace and the Vatican's Long Discernment

Since June 1981, the small town of Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina has drawn tens of millions of pilgrims who come in response to reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary under the title "Queen of Peace." For more than four decades the events provoked intense devotion and equally intense debate within the Church. In September 2024, the Vatican issued a carefully worded judgment that approved the spiritual life flourishing at Medjugorje — without declaring the apparitions themselves authentic.

🖼Image placeholderApparition Hill outside Medjugorje, where the first sighting was reported in June 1981

How It Began

The phenomenon began on June 24, 1981, when several young people on a hillside outside the village said they saw a luminous female figure holding a child. Over the following days the group settled into six visionaries: Ivan Dragićević, Marija Pavlović, Vicka Ivanković, Mirjana Dragićević, Ivanka Ivanković, and Jakov Čolo, who ranged in age from about ten to sixteen.

The visionaries reported that the Lady identified herself as the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Queen of Peace, and that she would continue to appear to them. From the outset the events unfolded against a politically tense backdrop, in what was then communist Yugoslavia, where religious gatherings drew official suspicion.

Daily Apparitions and the Ten Secrets

Unlike most historic Marian apparitions, which occurred over weeks or months, the Medjugorje apparitions have been described as continuing for decades. According to the visionaries, some among them still receive daily apparitions, while others now experience them only on certain dates each year.

Central to their accounts are the so-called Ten Secrets — future events the Lady is said to have confided to each visionary, to be revealed to the world at an appointed time through a chosen priest. The visionaries say that once each of them has received all ten secrets, the daily apparitions to that person cease. These claims, by their very nature unverifiable, have been among the most scrutinized aspects of the phenomenon.

🖼Image placeholderSt. James Church in Medjugorje, the spiritual heart of millions of pilgrimages

The Messages: Peace, Conversion, Prayer, Fasting

The spirituality associated with Medjugorje centers on a consistent set of themes that the visionaries say the Queen of Peace has emphasized. Foremost among them is peace — peace with God and among people — understood as the fruit of conversion of heart rather than mere political calm.

Alongside peace, the messages repeatedly call for daily prayer, especially the Rosary; for fasting, traditionally on Wednesdays and Fridays; for regular confession and reception of the Eucharist; and for reading Scripture and turning back to God. These are unmistakably traditional Catholic practices, and the Church's eventual judgment would rest heavily on the spiritual fruits they produced.

The Vatican's 2024 Nota

After years of study — including a Vatican investigative commission whose findings were never formally promulgated — the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released a Note titled "The Queen of Peace" on September 19, 2024, approved by Pope Francis on August 28. Applying new norms for discerning supernatural phenomena issued earlier that year, the Dicastery granted a Nihil obstat, meaning "nothing stands in the way" of the faithful giving their prudent adherence and engaging in public devotion.

Crucially, the Note states that this Nihil obstat does not amount to a declaration that the apparitions are supernatural in origin, and the faithful are not obliged to believe in them. The document focuses instead on the abundant spiritual fruits: conversions, returns to confession and Communion, vocations to priesthood and religious life, reconciled marriages, and works of charity.

►Video placeholderPilgrims praying the Rosary — the daily devotion at the core of the Medjugorje message

What the Approval Means — and Doesn't

The 2024 judgment marks an important clarification rather than a verdict on every reported message. The Vatican explicitly distinguished between the genuine grace at work in pilgrims' lives and the unresolved question of the visionaries' experiences, noting that the positive fruits no longer depend on the seers as central figures.

The Note also gently redirected devotion, observing that the spiritual benefits flow above all from pilgrimage to the sanctuary and its prayer, sacraments, and community — not from attending the visionaries' alleged apparitions. In effect, the Church embraced Medjugorje as a place of authentic Christian conversion while withholding judgment on the supernatural character of the phenomenon itself.