Medjugorje Apparitions And Strange Coincidences

24/25 June 1981 - June 25, 1991
On 24 June 1981, six young  children  Ivanka Ivankovic, Mirjana Dragicevic, Vicka Ivankovic, Ivan Dragicevic, Ivan Ivankovic and Milka Pavlovic   while walking on a rocky hill, called Apparition Hill, overlooking their homes saw from afar the Blessed Virgin.

 June 24 is the date on which the Church celebrates the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus . On June 25 the children returned once more. Two of the children who made up the previous group were missing:Ivan Ivankovic and Milka Pavlovic. They were replaced by two others; Maria Pavlovic and Jakov Colo . At Medjugorje Our Lady presented herself with the title of Queen of Peace and warned that only personal conversion, fasting and prayer can avert the wars. This was prescient.

On the tenth anniversary of the apparitions, war began in this region.  On  June 25, 1991, in fact, the parliaments of the Republics of Croatia and Slovenia proclaimed their independence from Yugoslavia. The same day the Yugoslav army began an armed attack on Slovenia, the first act of the bloody war that would involve Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo and then Serbia itself, the initiator of the conflict. This war caused thousands of deaths and injuries and immense destruction.

June 25, 1966
The apparent coincidences do not end there. On 25 June 1966 the Holy See and the Yugoslav government signed the Protocol which laid the groundwork for a modus vivendi with less conflict between the Yugoslav communist regime and the Catholic Church. One of the positive consequences of this agreement was that the government made it less difficult to build new Catholic churches, including the parish church of Medjugorje, which was completed in 1969.

August 5, 1995
June 25, is not the only coincidence of a Croatian national holiday with a feast of Medjugorje. In fact, on 5 August 1995 the Croatian Army liberated the city of Knin. August 5, has been proclaimed a national holiday under the name of the Homeland Thanksgiving (Dan domovinske zahvalnosti) national holiday.  The   Madonna at Medjugorje declared that August 5 was her real birthday. This has been confirmed by Marija and Jelena.