Every year around 25,000 people from Northern Ireland travel to the unlikely destination of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the small town of Medjugorje. But sun, sand and silly souvenirs are not high on the list of priorities for these holiday makers, rather they are searching for spiritual enlightenment; for a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and for cures for everything from addiction and loneliness to cancer.
Pilgrims looks into these issues of faith and spirituality as it follows a group of pilgrims from Northern Ireland as they make their way to the world-renowned shrine in the small town of Medjugorje.
While Mary is reported to have appeared for a short time in Lourdes in France, Fatima in Portugal and Knock in Ireland, it is said that she appears on a daily basis in the town of Medjugorje.
'Our Lady of Medjugorje' was first reported to have appeared on June 24, 1981 to six Herzegovinian Croat children, who claim to have since experienced daily visions. It is said that the apparition told the children that she would impart 10 secrets onto each of them.
Three of the visionaries have now claimed to have received their 10 secrets and the visions have reduced to once a year. The remaining three visionaries say they have yet to receive their final secret and their visions continue to appear every day.
One of these visionaries, and perhaps the best known, is Vicka Ivankovic. Vicka was the eldest of the children to have first experienced the vision back in 1981. She was 16 at the time, and everyday she continues to receive messages and pass them on to the pilgrims who gather at her doorstep.
But while many believers flock to Medjugorje in the hope of witnessing an apparition or being touched in someway by the divine, others are not so convinced by the claims of the six visionaries.
The Catholic Church has never officially recognised Medjugorje as a site of true apparitions and in their early days of their sightings, the visionaries were even chased and arrested by militia in an effort to make them retract their claims. Each of them, however, has continued to stick to their story.
Scientific tests on the visionaries, commissioned by the Franciscans to examine the validity of their claims, have only indicated the six of them completely believe what they say they witnessed.
Download our android app!
