In June 1981, six young Croatians in the village of Medjugorje, in the former Yugoslavia, reported that the Virgin Mary had appeared to them. The Medjugorje visionaries say that Mary has returned every day since then, bringing them important messages from heaven to convey to the world. Throughout history, people have reported encountering extraordinary religious experiences-apparitions of the Virgin Mary, visions of Jesus Christ, weeping statues and icons, the stigmata, physical healings and miracles, and experiences of the afterlife-and interpreted them as supernatural in origin. Scholars have often tried to reinterpret such experiences, including those described by the great mystics like Francis of Assisi, Catherine of Siena, and Teresa of Avila, into natural or psychopathological categories, such as hysteria, hallucination, delusion, epileptic seizures, psychosis, the workings of the unconscious mind, or fraud. Are such reductionist explanations valid? Over the past three decades the Medjugorje visionaries have been subjected to extensive medical, psychological, and scientific examination, even while undergoing their visionary experiences. Daniel Klimek argues that the case of Medjugorje affords a rare opportunity to understand a deeper dimension of extraordinary religious phenomena. Presenting and analyzing the scientific studies on the visionaries in juxtaposition with the major scholars and debates surrounding religious experience, Klimek concludes that a multidisciplinary approach grants a more holistic and deeper understanding of such extraordinary religious experiences.

The original and bestselling story of the miracles and message of Medjugorje, the little town in the hills of the former Yugoslavia that has become a global phenomenon. Journalist Wayne Weible tells how his life was forever changed by what he experienced there. With refreshing candor and self-deprecating humor, Wayne Weible (1937-2018) takes readers with him on the adventure to Medjugorje that radically and permanently changed his life. You will discover the apparitions of the Blessed Mother along with him, as he chronicles the ways that the Virgin Mary continues to speak to the world today from Medjugorje. This book continues as the bestseller on Medjugorje in the English language, with over 385,000 copies sold. “Since 1981, the message of conversion and reconciliation with God has been uniquely reaffirmed by the Blessed Virgin Mary in the unlikely little village of Medjugorje. She has been appearing there daily to six young people who live in the valley that lies in the shadow of the cross on Mount Krizevac. According to the youths chosen for this special mission of renewal, the mother of Jesus is bringing an urgent plea from her Son to all mankind to turn away from a world terminally ill with the disease of sin and reconcile with Him.” —Wayne Weible

In 1981, six children in the small village of Medjugorje claimed that Our Lady had appeared to them. Since then millions of pilgrims have traveled from across the world to pray in this special place. In conversation with Finbar O'Leary, Vicka, one of the six, tells of her special relationship with Our Lady and relays many of the messages which she says the `Queen of Peace' has given to her. Vicka also discusses her own sufferings and the journeys on which Our Lady has brought her.

Just in time for the 25th anniversary of the first apparition of the Virgin Mary in the village of Medjugorje (on June 25th), this volume provides readers with a collection of compelling firsthand accounts of visits to the site and how Medjugorje genuinely and permanently transformed people's lives.

Understanding Medjugorje is an in-depth investigation into some of the most surprising, but also most influential, spiritual phenomena to have affected modern Catholicism. Millions of people have visited the site of the alleged visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Medjugorje, despite the fact that they have received no official Church approval. Understanding Medjugorje will help readers to understand how important Church figures, including Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger-now Pope Benedict XVI-have actually viewed Medjugorje. It also looks at the role of influential priests and theologians in promoting Medjugorje, and the tangled historical and religious background to the visions. Similarly, it deals with the links between the visions, the Charismatic Renewal, and the worldwide Medjugorje movement, as well as looking at how Medjugorje compares with Fatima, and what the successive local bishops of Mostar have said about it. The degree of trustworthiness of the visions and the visionaries is also assessed, as is the real significance of the Medjugorje "good fruits," and the reasons why it has been so incredibly popular.

Medjugorje Complete: The Definitive Account of the Visions and Visionaries looks at the alleged visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Medjugorje, their origins, and their impact on the Catholic Church. It is an expanded, revised, and updated version of two previous works, Understanding Medjugorje and Medjugorje Revisited, published in 2006 and 2011 respectively. Medjugorje Complete focuses on the transcripts of the original tapes of the visionaries made in June 1981. It also looks at the credibility of the visions and the visionaries, demonstrating serious problems in accepting Medjugorje as genuine. It also examines the role of theologians and the Hercegovina Franciscans in promoting Medjugorje, and its tangled historical and religious background, as well as its links with the Charismatic Renewal. In sum, it examines all the relevant evidence about Medjugorje, and concludes that, despite some "good fruits," it does not appear to be genuinely supernatural. If you want to know the truth about Medjugorje, then-forty years after the story began-Medjugorje Complete offers the definitive account.

In the past two centuries hundreds of apparitions of the Virgin Mary have been reported, drawing crowds to the seers and the sites and constituting events of great religious significance for millions of people worldwide. Here Sandra Zimdars-Swartz provides a detective-like investigation of the experiences and interpretations of six major apparitions, including those at La Salette and Lourdes in France during the mid-nineteenth century; at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917; and the more recent ones at San Damiano, Italy; Garabandal, Spain; and Medjugorje, Yugoslavia, where the apparitions continue. Adopting a phenomenological approach to these "encounters with Mary"--one that is neither apologetic nor antagonistic--the author explores the tension between the personal meaning of the events for their subjects and the public appropriation of this meaning by a larger religious community. Along the way she examines the backgrounds of the seers, their willingness or reluctance to talk about the apparitions and their messages, the amount of emotional support they received from family and community as news of the apparitions spread, the reports of miracles at apparition sites, the reactions of local authorities, and the steps taken by the Roman Catholic Church in officially recognizing or rejecting the apparitions as worthy of belief. The author concludes with a survey of religious worldviews based on Marian apparitions, focusing especially on the now-popular transcultural apocalyptic nature of these messages to the modern world. Originally published in 1991. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

“The process by which these supernatural events are authenticated is expertly told by John Thavis, one of the world’s leading Vaticanologists. In fact, that a book on so secretive and complex a topic is so deeply researched, beautifully written, and artfully told is something of a small miracle itself.”—James Martin, S.J., author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage From the New York Times bestselling author of The Vatican Diaries, a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how the Vatican investigates claims of miraculous events Apocalyptic prophecies and miraculous apparitions are headline-grabbing events that often put the Catholic Church’s concept of “rational faith” at odds with the passion of its more zealous followers. To some, these claims teeter on the edge of absurdity. Others see them as evidence of a private connection with God. For the Vatican, the issue is much more nuanced as each supposed miraculous event could have serious theological and political consequences. In response, the Vatican has developed a highly secretive and complex evaluation system to judge the authenticity of supernatural phenomena. Former journalist John Thavis uses his thirty years’ experience covering the Vatican to shed light on this little-known process, revealing deep internal debates on the power of religious relics, private revelations, exorcisms, and more. Enlightening and accessible to Catholics and non-Catholics alike, the book illustrates the Church’s struggle to balance the tension between traditional beliefs and contemporary skepticism.

Prayed in the Pentagon, to convents, and many patriotic events, a rosary of consecration for our nation