Fr. Janko Bubalo, Franciscan, member of the Franciscan Province of the Assumption of the BVM of Herzegovina, was born in 1913 in the village of Turčinovići, which is in the parish of Široki Brijeg. Apart from his pastoral service in Herzegovina, he is well known among Croatian-speaking readers for several collections of poems.
One month after the Medjugorje apparitions began, he was transferred to Humac near Ljubuški. The proximity of the monastery to Medjugorje and the places of apparitions allowed him to carefully observe the events taking place there, as well as “the visionaries”, and to note and even record his conversations with them.
He put his notes and interviews on paper, which allows anyone who is really interested in what happened and is still happening in Medjugorje to learn the truth first-hand.
Vicka Ivanković-Mijatović was born on September 9, 1964, in Bijakovići, in the Parish of Medjugorje.. Vicka is one of eight children of Pero and his wife Zlata born Dugandžić. Healthy and quite lively, she completed elementary school in Čitluk and then the first year of the vocational textile school in Mostar. In the fall of 1981, she interrupted her training. On the advice of Our Lady, she stayed at home with little Jakov, often with a spade or a tiller in her hands. Since then, she has led an apparently simple life, although not everything is as simple as it seems. She confidently hands herself over to Our Lady and allows her to do whatever she sets out to do with her. Our Lady entrusted nine secrets to her. Vicka is married, has two children and lives in Krehin Gradac near Medjugorje. The prayer intention that Our Lady confided her: for the sick. She still has daily apparitions.
About This Book
The lively and familiar, sometimes even amusing dialogue between the Franciscan Janko Bubalo, poet (who, at the time, was 70 years old) and Vicka Ivanković (who, at the time, was 20 years old), retraces three years of her “encounters” with “the Gospa”. It was Vicka, the oldest and most communicative of the six, the richest source possessing the surest memory, that Fr. Janko turned to, after consulting the other five “visionaries of Medjugorje”. Answering the questions from the Franciscan, who asks avidly, Vicka remembers and describes what has happened since the first apparitions, including controversial and provoking details. Not a single box should be left blank, not a single important fact should be overlooked, such is Fr. Janko’s motto.
These pages therefore represent an irreplaceable document for knowing the facts. They are an essential basis for an evaluation that is not only intended to be emotional, but also based on facts. In these pages, you will find the testimony of a unique spiritual experience that has deeply marked the life and personality of a contemporary young girl.
We entrust this book to readers in the hope that it will offer clarification surrounding the events in Medjugorje.
To opt for Medjugorje and defend it, or to contest the authenticity of the visions and attack them, without having first listened carefully and conscientiously to the protagonists, is careless, and even irresponsible. Any study and investigation of similar phenomena should not do without the description of events from the mouths of direct participants.
Fr. Janko Bubalo understood this from the start and tirelessly recorded the conversations with the “visionaries” on tape, questioning them about everything they could and were allowed to tell him. Thanks to his efforts, many details will remain recorded that would otherwise have been erased by time and oblivion from the memory of the participants.
In the pages of this book, one should not look for theological discourses on the apparitions. Fr. Janko offers us a simple account of the events which will present themselves to the reader in all their interest and their unusualness. One thing is certain: the readers will not regret their time spent reading this book. On the contrary, they will see that there are many reasons why the events of Medjugorje have, for several decades, been at the centre of Christian attention all over the world.
Themes
FIRST WEEK TIMELINE
WHAT OUR LADY LOOKS LIKE
THE CHOICE OF THE VISIONARIES
PEACE, PEACE, PEACE, AND ONLY PEACE!
FASTING RECOMMENDED BY OUR LADY
THE BEHAVIOUR OF CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITIES
EXPERIENCES AND WARNINGS
THE EXTRAORDINARY DANCE OF THE SUN
HAVE THE VISIONARIES EXPERIENCED DETERRENCE?
OUR LADY’S SPECIAL JOY
OUR LADY’S FAVOURITE PRAYERS AND SONGS
THE EXPERIENCE OF THE APPARITION
PRAYERS OVER THE SICK
HEALINGS AND CONVERSIONS
THE SECRETS AND THE SIGN
OUR LADY KISSES THE POPE; PRAYER FOR THE BISHOP
VISION OF PARADISE, PURGATORY AND HELL
THE SACRIFICES OF THE PARISHIONERS AND OUR LADY’S GRATITUDE
VICKA ABOUT HERSELF
THE MEDJUGORJE APPARITIONS AND “LAST THINGS”
Publisher: ICMM
Author: Fr. Janko Bubalo
Language: English
Original language: Croatian
Translation / Review: Lidija Paris / Sarah Kate Moynihan Zubac
Edited in 2023
Size: 205 x 135
264 pages
