Review by Lou Allocco
Mirjana Soldo’s life was typical of that of many other teenagers. Born Mirjana Dragicevic in Sarajevo, the capital city of what was then Yugoslavia, she came from a close-knit loving family and lived a comparatively comfortable and happy life in that city. She was an excellent student at one of Sarajevo’s best high schools and planned to attend college, and she enjoyed reading historical novels for entertainment. Although somewhat shy, Mirjana was caring, compassionate, and made friends easily with others from various different backgrounds. By most accounts, there was nothing extraordinary about her life compared to that of any other teenager.
All of this changed dramatically on June 24, 1981. On that day, she was visiting her friend Ivanka in the small town of Medjugorje when they suddenly saw a beautiful woman high up on a hillside whom they recognized as the Blessed Virgin Mary. They were eventually joined by four other teenagers, and their initial reactions ranged from awe to terror.
As the apparitions repeated on a daily basis, word of them quickly spread throughout the community. The townspeople were astonished as they watched the six “visionaries”, as they came to be known, seemingly float up the stark, barren, rocky hillside at an impossible speed as they approached the spot of the expected apparition of the Blessed Mother. Although these onlookers could not see the apparitions themselves, they were shocked by the expressions on the visionaries’ faces and quickly came to believe that these children were indeed experiencing something supernatural.
The apparitions continued to attract great crowds, thousands and thousands of people, not only locally but also throughout their country, and eventually from all over the world as more and more “pilgrims” came to Medjugorje to experience what had been reported.
Miracles were reported in Medjugorje. During one apparition, the visionaries pleaded to the Blessed Virgin on behalf of a three-year-old boy named Danijel. His father had brought him to the hill hoping for a cure; he had been paralyzed and unable to speak since he was a baby. That very night Danijel began walking and talking!
As news of the apparitions spread, attracting increasing numbers of people, the atheistic communist government became very concerned and sought to stop them. The communists conducted increasingly brutal treatment of the visionaries, subjecting them to hours of interrogations and threats, demanding that they recant their testimonies, but the teens insisted that they were telling the truth and refused to deny what they saw, even though they may have feared for their lives and freedom.
The government accused the teenagers of lying, of hallucinating on drugs, of being under hypnosis, and of suffering from mental illness. Multiple doctors and scientific experts examined the teens, and they could find no evidence that they were not telling the truth. On one occasion they were examined by a pediatric doctor, who told them that she was an atheist and would find a logical explanation for what they claimed to have seen. This doctor accompanied the visionaries to the spot of the apparitions on the hill in order to examine their faces while it occurred. She was fascinated by what she saw, and as they were descending the hill, she told them that she believed them. Shortly after, she returned to her Catholic faith and even joined the church choir.
The communist police were especially harsh on Mirjana, whom they considered to be an outside troublemaker from Sarajevo. Mirjana was raised Catholic, but her family had to practice their faith in a great deal of secrecy due to the oppressive government, which disapproved strongly of any religious expression. Her grandfather and uncle had been murdered by the communists before she was born, as were over 500 priests in the region. She was forcibly taken from Medjugorje back to Sarajevo and forbidden to return. She was publicly ridiculed in the local newspaper and expelled from the excellent high school she attended, despite being an outstanding student. She was taken at any time from her parents’ home and brought in by the police for interrogation, and her family was threatened. But through it all, she had faith in God and turned to the Blessed Mother for the strength to endure, and she never denied seeing her.
Mirjana continues to receive monthly apparitions on the second of each month, as well as on her birthday, March 18. She writes about her life before and after the apparitions in the book “My Heart Will Triumph”. Reading through her wonderful and poignant story, one becomes appreciative of the wonderful gift Jesus gave us from the Cross when He said “Behold thy Mother”.
