APPARITION HILL

​

The place of Our Lady's first apparitions on Mt Podbrdo is

usually called Apparition Hill. It is situated several hundred meters above

the Bijakovo hamlet of Podbrdo.

​

A steep footpath leads from the houses to the very place of the apparitions.

Now slightly widened by the millions of pilgrims who have so far visited the place

of the first apparitions, the path has become visible from

as far away as St. James.

 

Numerous pilgrims, many of whom were born and raised on flat asphalt,

often in unsuitable clothing or even barefoot, and on their knees,

climbed over the sharp stones to the place of Our Lady's first apparitions.

​

Half way up the path is located a large plain wooden cross.

This is where on the third day of the apparitions,

June 26, 1981, Our Lady appeared to the visionary Marija Pavlovic

who, after having had a vision with the others at the usual place that evening,

ran down the hill a little ahead of the other visionaries.

 

At this place Marija once more saw Our Lady, now with a sad face.

Behind her was a large cross and motioning with her hands she said,

"Peace, peace,peace and only peace! Peace must reign between

God and man and also  between men!" Today this is a place where pilgrims stop,

remaining in prayer and reflection on the message given by Our Lady, directed to man,

and the world of today, which is so much in such great need of peace.

 

The very site of apparitions is a large bare space on the rocky ground more

than a hundred meters in diameter, completely trodden down by the feet

of millions of pilgrims, without a single stem or blade of grass between the

rocks, without hardly a lump of ground or even little rocks. At the site which

the visionaries closely marked as the very place where Our Lady had appeared

to them, a high cross is erected, planted into a pile of rocks.

 

Only something truly extraordinary could have attracted such a great multitude

of people to that place. At any time of day or night, any day of the year,

individuals and groups can be found in prayer, in song,

in deep meditation, and silence.