Words and Pictures By Bill

	The starting point for looking at Medjugorje must be the Church of St. James. This was started in the 1930's after the previous church was destroyed by an earthquake. The villagers of the parish (for the parish of Medjugorje consists of a number of villages) could not agree about the type of church. Only when one of the older inhabitants had a dream of the church did they finally agree to this design, although it seemed to be far too big for such a small parish. The church took some years to complete, but is now at the centre of the parish, with many Masses for visitors from all over the world.
	Of the two hills, Apparition Hill (or Podbrdo) and the Cross Mountain (or Krizevac), the Apparition Hill is where it all started in June 1981. As you can see, the hill is steep and rocky, and even today it is quite a climb up between these buildings. When the apparitions started, there were no buildings like this, but even then it would have been difficult to climb quickly.
	Once up the hill, the place where Our Lady appeared (and still does sometimes to Ivan - one of the visionaries's prayer group) is flat but rocky. There are many crosses there, and the one shown marks the spot of the early apparitions. It is truly an extraordinary place : nowhere else in Medjugorje is there so much calm and peace, even when you are surrounded by other people praying. I have found the peace here like nowhere else - anywhere, and you can find it easy to just relax and pray.
	Bill Has a web site, a few pages are dedicated to Medjugorje - Go Here

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