If you aren't Catholic, you're about to get a lesson on how to do a Catholic pilgrimage!
I've posted a few times over the years about the random heat waves that we have here in Europe. You might remember the fun we had in Colmar, France back in 2016. Or perhaps in Athens, Greece last summer. But the heat in Bosnia and Herzegovina might the hottest we have ever experienced.
Of course when we booked our trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina, we didn't know high temperatures were going to be over 100 degrees F. Yikes.
But apparently it wasn't hot at all in the Alps... since there was snow on the peaks!
Because we had 7 people (the four of us, Todd's sister Kathleen, niece Madison, and Kathleen's best friend growing up - Lynne) we knew that trying to rent two cars and drive the several hours between Zadar, Croatia and Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina (from here on out, I'm just going to call this BiH)... renting a van with a drive proved to be easier and actually more economical. There are also all kind of issues with renting a car in Croatia and driving it over the border, so this really was the best way.
PLUS, when you aren't driving and the driver wants to take a break at a rest stop with a bar, you can have a little beer break!
Our beer break was short and the moon was rising over Croatia so we hopped back in the van and headed for the BiH border. BiH is not a Schengen country (while Croatia is a member), so the border takes some time.
The BiH border can have very long car lines, especially in the summer. Another bonus of hiring a van is that they know the back ways into BiH! Instead of going to the very busy Doljani border crossing, he took us through the Orajovlje crossing, which took us under 30 minutes.
It's a funny little border though. You stop at one booth and they do some passport stamps to get you out of Croatia. Then you drive maybe 50 feet to another booth and they take all of the passports and go into this little office and scan then (that's typical, they do that everywhere.) No stamps here, though.
There were seven of us in the van, not counting the driver. Of the seven, only two people got actual stamps at this Schengen to Non Schengen border: Todd and Natalie. No one else! I actually began to wonder whether they would let us back into Croatia in a few days since we didn't have exit/entrance stamps. (Spoiler alert: They let us back in.)
We arrived fairly late into Medjugorje and spent the night at Rooms Kenedy (I can't give this place enough stars - it was awesome!) In the morning, the hostess called a couple of taxis to take us to the very base of Apparition Hill.
The views are quite lovely though! With over a million visitors each year, Medjugorje is one of the most visited cities in all of BiH, despite only having a population of about 4500.
Along the rocky trail, there are various scenes from Mary's life, including this one that Madison and Grant were checking out about Mary being visited by the Angel Gabriel who told her she was going to give birth to Jesus.
Make sure you bring cold water with you! Our lovely hotel had cold bottled water (for sale) that we took with us.
About halfway up the mountain is a plain wooden cross, which marks the spot at which Mary appeared to Marija Pavlovic on June 26, 1981 (two days after her initial appearance up the hill a bit.)
Sorry for the blur, but about a mile away on top of the next ridge is Cross Mountain, or it's actual name, Mount Krizevac. In 1933, to mark the 1900th anniversary of the death of Jesus, they put this massive cross up on the mountain.
As you hike up the hill, you may periodically see groups pausing to say the rosary or in prayer.
You definitely kind of feel like you're on the surface of Mars!
I feel like these rocks look like old dinosaur bones emerging from the ground.
We finally reached the top of the hill and the spot of the apparitions. On June 24, 1981, two teenager girls who were playing on the mountain in the town of Medjugorje in communist Yugoslavia (ie: religion is banned at this point) reported seeing a woman holding a baby here on this hill. The next day, the same two girls and four other teenagers went back to the hill and once again saw the same vision. Some of the visionaries continue to have daily apparitions.
Over the years, the Virgin Mary has given the six visionaries a recurring message - that people are to pray, to fast, and to do penance.
My babies must have heard Mary's message as they followed others doing the same and dropped (unprompted by us) to their knees to pray.
Madison took this picture of Grant sitting on a rock on Apparition Hill and I honestly couldn't believe how old he looked! Look at that dimple!
This town was a Catholic town long before the visions appeared in 1981. The original St. James's church was built in 1892, but the ground was unstable so a new church had to be built. Construction began on this church in 1934, although it wasn't completed for 35 years. The central religion of this part of BiH is Catholicism (as most people here are Croats), and very interestingly this town sits strongly in the Herzegovina part of the country, something the locals are VERY quick to point out to you. Read more about the religious tensions in BiH in my next post about Mostar. It's really fascinating!
We didn't take any photos when we went to mass, obviously, but we did take one of ourselves outside of St. James's church. St. James was the patron saint of pilgrims, hence the name of the church. Mass was really nice - the Irish priest gave a really nice homily.
After mass, we headed back to the hotel for a bit. Then we ventured out for some lunch and souvenir shopping. Medjugorje isn't huge, but as Grant said, "I didn't know Medjugorje was just one road!" We spent most of our time walking up and down this road.
We stopped at Restoran Pizzeria Santa Fe for some beer and lunch. We totally laughed... the guy who worked there lured us in with "we have air conditioning" and they did... but they had the windows open. So much for that!
After lunch and some rest time in the air conditioned hotel, we went back to St. James's for the rosary. It wasn't in English but we knew it so it wasn't too difficult. It was SO SO SO awesome for Rooms Kenedy to let us stay until the evening since our rooms weren't rented for the next night. It really saved us as the high temperature got up to 106 degrees F.
Madison, Grant and I decided to stay in the church as they started up a second rosary, but Kathleen and Natalie went to do confession. Todd and Lynne went with them. One of the nice things about the visionaries is that they say the Virgin Mary told them to do penance. With over 50 confessionals, the sacrament of penance and reconciliation is one of the greatest draws at Medjugorje. There is also a huge outdoor altar right behind St. James's with rows and rows of outdoor pews in front of it.
This is a close up of the big outdoor altar. With people praying at it! I have to say being at Medjugorje was very lovely, despite the heat. The Vatican has waffled back and forth over the years about the validity of the apparitions - Pope Francis himself even said in 2015 that he had issue with, "visionaries who can tell us exactly what message Our Lady will be sending at four o’clock this afternoon." The frequency, timing and brevity of the daily apparitions are something the church has taken issue with in the past. The Vatican seems to have lightened up a bit earlier this year as they now permit pilgrimages (something they didn't necessarily encourage in the past.) They still haven't authenticated any of the visions, although they do seem to feel more strongly about the first apparitions, only having doubts about the ongoing ones. Either way, no matter how one feels about it, it's a good spiritual journey that encourages love, kindness and penance. And those are always good things to promote in today's world.
As soon as Natalie and Kathleen were finished with confession, we booked it back to the hotel where we gathered our things and boarded our waiting taxi vans that took us to the city of Mostar, deeper into BiH.
Until next time, Medjugorje!
I've posted a few times over the years about the random heat waves that we have here in Europe. You might remember the fun we had in Colmar, France back in 2016. Or perhaps in Athens, Greece last summer. But the heat in Bosnia and Herzegovina might the hottest we have ever experienced.
Of course when we booked our trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina, we didn't know high temperatures were going to be over 100 degrees F. Yikes.
But apparently it wasn't hot at all in the Alps... since there was snow on the peaks!
Because we had 7 people (the four of us, Todd's sister Kathleen, niece Madison, and Kathleen's best friend growing up - Lynne) we knew that trying to rent two cars and drive the several hours between Zadar, Croatia and Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina (from here on out, I'm just going to call this BiH)... renting a van with a drive proved to be easier and actually more economical. There are also all kind of issues with renting a car in Croatia and driving it over the border, so this really was the best way.
PLUS, when you aren't driving and the driver wants to take a break at a rest stop with a bar, you can have a little beer break!
Our beer break was short and the moon was rising over Croatia so we hopped back in the van and headed for the BiH border. BiH is not a Schengen country (while Croatia is a member), so the border takes some time.
The BiH border can have very long car lines, especially in the summer. Another bonus of hiring a van is that they know the back ways into BiH! Instead of going to the very busy Doljani border crossing, he took us through the Orajovlje crossing, which took us under 30 minutes.
It's a funny little border though. You stop at one booth and they do some passport stamps to get you out of Croatia. Then you drive maybe 50 feet to another booth and they take all of the passports and go into this little office and scan then (that's typical, they do that everywhere.) No stamps here, though.
There were seven of us in the van, not counting the driver. Of the seven, only two people got actual stamps at this Schengen to Non Schengen border: Todd and Natalie. No one else! I actually began to wonder whether they would let us back into Croatia in a few days since we didn't have exit/entrance stamps. (Spoiler alert: They let us back in.)
We arrived fairly late into Medjugorje and spent the night at Rooms Kenedy (I can't give this place enough stars - it was awesome!) In the morning, the hostess called a couple of taxis to take us to the very base of Apparition Hill.
Let me tell you right now... this was a hike. And it was not an easy hike. Even though we started out at 7 am, we were all drenched by the time we reached the top of the hill. You MUST wear sturdy shoes, preferably hiking boots with good traction so you don't slip on these rocks.
The views are quite lovely though! With over a million visitors each year, Medjugorje is one of the most visited cities in all of BiH, despite only having a population of about 4500.
Along the rocky trail, there are various scenes from Mary's life, including this one that Madison and Grant were checking out about Mary being visited by the Angel Gabriel who told her she was going to give birth to Jesus.
Make sure you bring cold water with you! Our lovely hotel had cold bottled water (for sale) that we took with us.
About halfway up the mountain is a plain wooden cross, which marks the spot at which Mary appeared to Marija Pavlovic on June 26, 1981 (two days after her initial appearance up the hill a bit.)
Sorry for the blur, but about a mile away on top of the next ridge is Cross Mountain, or it's actual name, Mount Krizevac. In 1933, to mark the 1900th anniversary of the death of Jesus, they put this massive cross up on the mountain.
Honestly, this was one of the hardest things I've ever done. It didn't help that my shoes were absolutely the opposite of what I should have worn.
As you hike up the hill, you may periodically see groups pausing to say the rosary or in prayer.
You definitely kind of feel like you're on the surface of Mars!
I feel like these rocks look like old dinosaur bones emerging from the ground.
We finally reached the top of the hill and the spot of the apparitions. On June 24, 1981, two teenager girls who were playing on the mountain in the town of Medjugorje in communist Yugoslavia (ie: religion is banned at this point) reported seeing a woman holding a baby here on this hill. The next day, the same two girls and four other teenagers went back to the hill and once again saw the same vision. Some of the visionaries continue to have daily apparitions.
Over the years, the Virgin Mary has given the six visionaries a recurring message - that people are to pray, to fast, and to do penance.
My babies must have heard Mary's message as they followed others doing the same and dropped (unprompted by us) to their knees to pray.
Natalie took a few moments to be by herself.
Madison took this picture of Grant sitting on a rock on Apparition Hill and I honestly couldn't believe how old he looked! Look at that dimple!
We said one more Hail Mary before hiking down the mountain, which was infinitely harder than hiking up the mountain. Especially in sandals.
Don't hike down the same way you came up - if you do, you'll miss the Blue Cross. This is the spot at which two of the original visionaries continue to have apparitions.
Three very sweaty Bailey's made it to the bottom of Apparition Hill. Here are a few of them standing with a carving of Mary being crowned Queen of Heaven.
This town was a Catholic town long before the visions appeared in 1981. The original St. James's church was built in 1892, but the ground was unstable so a new church had to be built. Construction began on this church in 1934, although it wasn't completed for 35 years. The central religion of this part of BiH is Catholicism (as most people here are Croats), and very interestingly this town sits strongly in the Herzegovina part of the country, something the locals are VERY quick to point out to you. Read more about the religious tensions in BiH in my next post about Mostar. It's really fascinating!
We didn't take any photos when we went to mass, obviously, but we did take one of ourselves outside of St. James's church. St. James was the patron saint of pilgrims, hence the name of the church. Mass was really nice - the Irish priest gave a really nice homily.
After mass, we headed back to the hotel for a bit. Then we ventured out for some lunch and souvenir shopping. Medjugorje isn't huge, but as Grant said, "I didn't know Medjugorje was just one road!" We spent most of our time walking up and down this road.
We stopped at Restoran Pizzeria Santa Fe for some beer and lunch. We totally laughed... the guy who worked there lured us in with "we have air conditioning" and they did... but they had the windows open. So much for that!
After lunch and some rest time in the air conditioned hotel, we went back to St. James's for the rosary. It wasn't in English but we knew it so it wasn't too difficult. It was SO SO SO awesome for Rooms Kenedy to let us stay until the evening since our rooms weren't rented for the next night. It really saved us as the high temperature got up to 106 degrees F.
Madison, Grant and I decided to stay in the church as they started up a second rosary, but Kathleen and Natalie went to do confession. Todd and Lynne went with them. One of the nice things about the visionaries is that they say the Virgin Mary told them to do penance. With over 50 confessionals, the sacrament of penance and reconciliation is one of the greatest draws at Medjugorje. There is also a huge outdoor altar right behind St. James's with rows and rows of outdoor pews in front of it.
This is a close up of the big outdoor altar. With people praying at it! I have to say being at Medjugorje was very lovely, despite the heat. The Vatican has waffled back and forth over the years about the validity of the apparitions - Pope Francis himself even said in 2015 that he had issue with, "visionaries who can tell us exactly what message Our Lady will be sending at four o’clock this afternoon." The frequency, timing and brevity of the daily apparitions are something the church has taken issue with in the past. The Vatican seems to have lightened up a bit earlier this year as they now permit pilgrimages (something they didn't necessarily encourage in the past.) They still haven't authenticated any of the visions, although they do seem to feel more strongly about the first apparitions, only having doubts about the ongoing ones. Either way, no matter how one feels about it, it's a good spiritual journey that encourages love, kindness and penance. And those are always good things to promote in today's world.
As soon as Natalie and Kathleen were finished with confession, we booked it back to the hotel where we gathered our things and boarded our waiting taxi vans that took us to the city of Mostar, deeper into BiH.
Until next time, Medjugorje!
