![\"an-aerial-view-of-a-pilgrim-praying-next-to-a-vandalized-monument-bearing-the-words-gospa-devil-meaning-virgin-mary-devil-and-a-cross-on-apparition-hill-in-medjugorje-bosnia-tuesday-july-28\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785254054_528_.jpeg\")
\n A pilgrim praying next to a vandalized monument bearing the words Gospa devil, meaning Virgin Mary Devil. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
THE PILGRIMAGE SITE in Bosnia that\u2019s popular with Irish tourists has been vandalised, and a nearby altar set ablaze.<\/p>\n
It comes just days before tens of thousands are expected to gather at the shrine.<\/p>\n
The Marian shrine of Medjugorje, about 140 kilometres southwest of Sarajevo, rose to fame in the 1980s after purported apparitions of the Virgin Mary there.<\/p>\n
It has become one of the most popular Catholic pilgrimage sites, with more than a million people visiting \u201cApparition Hill\u201d every year.<\/p>\n
There are direct chartered flights to\u00a0Medjugorje from the airport in Knock, Co Mayo. Most flights scheduled for the next two months are already fully booked. They range in price from \u20ac795 to \u20ac915.<\/p>\n
Local media published images of the damage, showing black spray paint covering the central statue of the Virgin Mary\u2019s face and the words \u201cdevil in a skirt\u201d scrawled across its pedestal.<\/p>\n
Security camera footage also published by local outlet Jabuka TV showed a man setting fire to the outdoor altar of the nearby St James Church.<\/p>\n
\u201cA person linked to incidents was located and arrested\u201d in the Medjugorje region, a police statement said.<\/p>\n
Contacted by AFP regarding the nationality of the suspect, a police spokeswoman said that the \u201cidentification is ongoing\u201d.<\/p>\n
\n A pilgrim praying next to a vandalized monument bearing the words Gospa devil, meaning Virgin Mary Devil. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n
Police told AFP they were investigating after worshippers reported \u201coffensive messages\u201d and a fire at the site.<\/p>\n
Some of the graffiti, written in both Polish and English, appeared to attack people who claim to communicate messages from the reputed apparitions \u2013 known locally as \u201cvisionaries\u201d.<\/p>\n
The incident occurred just days before the annual prayer gathering, which is held in the first week of August, and draws more than 50,000 young people from around the world to Medjugorje.<\/p>\n
In September 2024, the Vatican recognised the shrine but stopped short of ruling on the messages that \u201cvisionaries\u201d claimed to receive from the Virgin and regularly pass on to believers.<\/p>\n
The decision boosted the prominence of the pilgrimage site in the small village, which has drawn followers ever since six young people reported seeing the Virgin Mary there in 1981.<\/p>\n
The Medjugorje parish office said in a statement that the planned event would still go ahead and repairs were already under way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is with great sadness that we learned of the act of vandalism targeting our parish\u2019s places of prayer,\u201d the parish office said.<\/p>\n
The statement also called for its followers to respond \u201cthrough prayer, fasting, and forgiveness\u201d.<\/p>\n
With reporting by AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE PILGRIMAGE SITE in Bosnia that\u2019s popular with Irish tourists has been vandalised, and a nearby altar set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[124635,256983,9,10,2512,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,256984,5,1186,256985,7,8,47788,256986,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-608457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-bosnia-and-herzegovina","tag-bosnian-pilgrimage","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-catholic-church","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-medjugorje","tag-news","tag-none","tag-pilgrimage","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-vandalism","tag-virgin-mary","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116998417970213145","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}