Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? Luke 1 : 43
It was on the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist, June 24, 1981, that Our Lady first appeared at Medjugorje. The first of the visionaries to see “Gospa” was Ivanka Ivankovic, who was 16 at the time. Alongside her that day was Mirjana Dragicevic. She was the second person to witness Our Lady’s appearance. Ivanka describes what happened in this way:
“This is what happened that day on June 24, 1981 when I saw Our Lady for the first time.
“On that day, like every day, I was outside the village with Mirjana and we were waiting for other friends to come. I do not how long we were waiting but we got tired of that and then we started walking towards the houses.
“While we were walking towards the village I was really forced by something to look towards the hill and then I saw Our Lady. I said to Mirjana, ‘Mirjana, I see Our Lady on the hill’ but Mirjana said, ‘Don’t tell me these foolish things.’
“I followed Mirjana who was walking back to the village and then we met Milka, the sister of the visionary Marija. Milka saw that something was wrong with me and she asked me what happened, and I told the girls to come back with me, that I had seen Our Lady. We went back and then all three of us saw Our Lady. Vicka also came to us and then two boys, the two Ivans. The apparition kept calling us but none of us dared to climb the hill.
“Our Lady was four or five hundred metres away from us. She kept calling us and emotions we felt in our heart were huge. We felt all kinds of emotions in our heart and none of us dared to get closer to her.
“Whoever we told that we saw Our Lady that evening, they did not believe us. They told us not to tell such things. That night was the longest night in my life. I was only 15 and I questioned myself the entire night whether what I saw was true or not.”
Mirjana recalls what happened in a similar way.
“That day, June 24, 1981, I went out for a walk with Ivanka. It was the Feast of St. John the Baptist, and so that day no one was working. The two of us went for a walk below the hill that is now called the Hill of Apparitions, and we talked about ordinary things, the kinds of things young girls talk about. And in one moment Ivanka said to me, ‘I think Our Lady is on the hill.’ She said that very matter-of-factly. I said, ‘Well, she has nothing better to do than come to the two of us.’ Because I thought that was [an] impossible thing. And I returned home and left Ivanka there. And when I came to the first houses of the village, I felt a need to return to the place. I needed to see what she was doing. And when I returned, I saw Ivanka in the same place. And she said to me, ‘Look, please, I am begging you.’ And I looked and I saw a woman with a long grey dress and she was holding a child in her arms. It was very strange because on that hill nobody ever went up there, especially with a child in their arms. The two of us just stared because all of our emotions were all confused within us.
“And in that moment, Ivan, one of the other visionaries, came also because that was the way he would normally walk to get to his home. I remember it like it was today. He was carrying apples in his arms and when he saw what the two of us were looking at, like every brave man, he dropped everything and ran. And then I said to Ivanka, ‘Who knows what this is; maybe it is better we leave also.’
“We returned home right away, and we told everyone that we have seen Our Lady but nobody believed us. My grandmother said, ‘Take a rosary and pray and leave Our Lady alone.’ I had the desire within me to be alone to pray. And so that entire night we spent in prayer, so that God could help us understand what was happening to us.”
