Some people say that no one of the visionaries of Medjugorje has been particularly devout before the apparitions began. So how do we know they have not been simply falsifying these apparitions apparitions for their own personal gain?
When the Church started to examine the visionaries or the recipients of the reported apparition, they looked for evidence of the moral integrity of each visionary particularly from the beginning of apparitions onward. The Church doesn`t require a specific standard of holiness for the visionaries before the reported miraculous occurrence begins, but rather what level of Christian virtue and integrity does the individual visionaries exhibit during the period of reported apparitions as a potential result of the apparition itself.
The Church says there is a possibility that God could choose, in his numinous and mysterious ways, someone to receive a heavenly message who could be far from Christ or from the Church, to experience then a conversion as a result of the supernatural happening. But otherwise, how could we make provision for some of the apostles and disciples of Jesus himself, St. Mary Magdalene for example, whose former live was not in conformity with the Gospel, but the later conversion became an example of Christian discipleship for all times.
So considering that, we can say that a basic moral integrity, and not an exceptional standard of holiness, is what commission members of Church investigations look for in evaluating the main conditions for a possible recipient of heavenly visits or messages.
The six visionaries of Medjugorje, Ivanka Ivankovic, Mirjana Dragicevic, Vicka Ivankovic, Ivan Dragicevic, Marija Pavlovic and Jakov Colo, have been under a public microscope for most of their youth and adult lives. They have been interviewed by a countless number of people,bishops, priests, religious, theologians,scientists and laity. The stunning identicalness of public opinion for those who have had direct contact with these six people is a profound respect for their manifest integrity, truthfulness, and the down-to-earth approach to the Christian life and to their experience as visionaries. Theologians who have interviewed all visionaries have similarly concluded to the same obvious presence of moral integrity and personal authenticity .
Considerable personal sacrifice rather than personal gain has been the foremost experience of these six visionaries, often at the painful prices of personal privacy and hardship. What was waiting for them after the apparitions have begun? Daily talks to pilgrims, prayer groups, and healing prayer sessions have become the benchmark of life for most of the Medjugorje seers for the last 27 years.
Since the apparitions have begun, the visionary Vicka has suffered an inoperable brain cyst, serious spinal pain, and a series of similar physical and spiritual penances, which she joyously chooses to offer for the conversion of sinners and the salvation of souls. It sounds unbelievable but numerous reports of spiritual and physical healings have become a result of Vicka’s praying over pilgrims. She does this praying only with the expressed permission of the parish priests. And although extraordenary Christian holiness is not a requirement for being a true visionary, but Vicka seems to personify both roles with an inspiring and contagious Christian joy.
Two medical and scientifical teams, one from Milan and the other from the French University of Montpellier, have scientifically probed the visionaries during the time of the first apparitions. Each of them has independently validated the legitimacy of their state of ecstasy as being in some form of true and real communication out of their ordinary time-space experience . These scientific studies also exclude any possibility of collective hallucination and any form of mere human deceit of falsification.
So it is a true story, with true visionaries. Visit Medjugorje and experience this true miracle.Medjugorje offers an amazing atmosphere, especially during the summer month, and you can stay at very comfortable Medjugorje hotels .
