THE LITTLE KNOWN PRIVATE MEETING OF ST. JOHN PAUL II WITH THE VISIONARY MIRJANA – “Medjugorje is the hope of the world”
AUGUST 24 , 2024
Mirjana’s story confirms that St. John Paul II not only believed in the apparitions of Medjugorje, but had himself requested them from Our Lady after the attack.
“On July 22, 1987, I found myself accompanying a group of young Croatians to the Vatican to see Pope John Paul II. That morning, when we arrived, the imposing dome of St. Peter’s Basilica was already illuminated by the first rays of the sun. Arriving early, we were able to sit in the front row at the Papal Audience that was to be held in St. Peter’s Square. Soon after, thousands of other pilgrims arrived.
When the Pope appeared, the crowd was in a frenzy. The pontiff walked among the people, blessing. As he passed in front of us, he put his hand on my head and blessed me. The blessing was over before I knew it. I stood there, smiling, over the moon with happiness at having received, for the first time, a blessing from a Pope.
But as the Pope continued walking, the Italian priest who accompanied me said in a loud voice: “Holy Father, you are Mirjana of Medjugorje!”. At that the Pope stopped, came back and gave me another blessing. I was frozen. His intense blue eyes seemed to pierce my soul. Not knowing how to find the words, I bowed my head and felt all the warmth of his blessing.
As he walked away, I turned to the Italian priest and joked, “You thought I needed a double blessing!” We both laughed. Later that afternoon, when I returned to my hotel—still reeling from the whole experience—I was shocked to receive a personal invitation from the Pope, asking us to meet him privately the next morning at Castel Gandolfo.
I was so excited that I couldn’t sleep that night. How would our meeting go? What would I say? I had a thousand questions in my head. For a moment I calmed down, but immediately afterward I thought again: tomorrow I will meet the Pope! And I went on like that, all night.
The next day I arrived in Castel Gandolfo just before 8:00, the time set for the meeting. This fortified village, about 25 kilometers from Rome, has been the summer residence of the popes for centuries. The papal palace, perched on a windswept hill and surrounded by gardens and olive groves, overlooks Lake Albano, whose waters are a blue color similar to the eyes of John Paul II.
A man in uniform escorted me to the palace garden. When I saw the Holy Father waiting for me there, I immediately felt like crying. He looked at me and smiled. His gaze was full of warmth and love. I felt like I was in the presence of a Saint – a true son of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I had learned to recognize something special in the eyes of people who loved Our Lady, a tenderness that only the Heavenly Mother could convey. And this aspect, in John Paul II, was stronger than in anyone else.
The Pope motioned for me to sit with him. I had to convince myself that I wasn’t dreaming. I had always thought that meeting the Pope was an impossible thing for an insignificant person like me, and now here I was, in front of him. I wanted to greet him, but I was too nervous to even say a single sentence. The Holy Father gently shook my hand and said: “Dzień dobry.” I couldn’t understand him. Maybe I was too excited and my ears were deceiving me? Or maybe my brain had gone haywire? I was mortified.
I had a unique opportunity to meet the Pope but I had no idea what he was saying to me. His words sounded like Croatian but I couldn’t decipher them. I soon realized he was speaking Polish. Slavic languages like Croatian and Polish have many words in common, so the Pope wanted to see if we could both communicate in our native languages.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work out, but I remembered that there was a language we both knew. “Holy Father, can we speak Italian?” I asked. He smiled and nodded. “Yes, good, Mirjana, good.” We talked about many things—some I can reveal, some I can’t—and soon I felt completely at ease in his presence. He spoke to me with such affection that I could have stayed there talking with him for hours.
“Please ask the pilgrims of Medjugorje to pray for my intentions,” he said. “Of course, Your Holiness,” I reassured him. “I know everything about Medjugorje. I have followed the messages from the beginning. Please tell me how it feels when Our Lady appears.” The Pope listened attentively as I described what I experienced during the apparitions. Every now and then he smiled and nodded gently. “And when she disappears,” I concluded, “I feel so much pain, and at that moment the only thing I think about is when I will see her again.”
He leaned toward me and said: “Take care of Medjugorje, Mirjana. Medjugorje is the hope for the whole world .” John Paul II’s words seemed to confirm the importance of the apparitions and the great responsibility I had as a visionary. I was surprised by the tone of conviction in his voice and the light that emanated from his eyes every time I mentioned “Medjugorje” – not to mention the perfection with which he pronounced the name of that country, always very difficult for foreigners to repeat.
“Holy Father,” I said, “I would like you to see all the people who come to us and pray.” The Pope turned and looked toward the east, sighing thoughtfully. “If I were not Pope, I would have gone to Medjugorje a long time ago,” he said . I will never forget the love that the Holy Father radiated. With him I had similar feelings to those I had with Our Lady; even looking into his eyes was like looking into Mary’s.
Later, a priest confided to me that the Pope had been interested in Medjugorje from the very beginning, because even before the apparitions began, he had prayed to Our Lady to appear on earth again . “I cannot do it alone, Mother,” he prayed. “In Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland and other communist countries, people are not free to practice their faith. I need your help, dear Mother.”
According to that priest, when the Pope learned that Our Lady had appeared in a small town in a communist country, he immediately thought that Medjugorje had been an answer to his prayers.”
From “My Heart Will Triumph” by Mirjana Soldo
