The pilgrim’s progress: Why this 24-year-old chose to go to Medjugorje for her summer holidays

PACKING my suitcase to go on holiday last week, I had an unusual checklist for a 24-year-old: no make-up, no bikini, and no going-out gear, writes Emma Sisk. 

My 9.3kg suitcase contained clothes for seven days, a book I would not read, and my rosary beads. After nine hours of travelling, I arrived at a little village, in Bosnia Herzegovina,that has a seemingly unpronounceable name: Medjugorje, the religious-conversion capital of the world.

Millions of people have travelled there since June, 1981, when six local children experienced phenomena they claimed were apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to these six ‘seers’, the apparitions contain a message of peace, a call to conversion, prayer and fasting, and ten secrets to be fulfilled in the future.