The town of Medjugorje suffered a series of vandal attacks in the early hours of Tuesday, July 28, 2026. The exterior altar of the parish was set on fire and several images of the Virgin Mary were vandalized. According to pilgrims at the site and media outlets that regularly report on Medjugorje, an individual was seen on security camera footage entering the exterior altar of the parish after 4:45 a.m., spraying a flammable liquid and setting the place on fire.
The footage was shared by the website La luce di Maria on its YouTube channel.Father Manuel Navarro, a priest from the Archdiocese of Madrid who is at the site, also reported that several images of the Virgin Mary in the Medjugorje area were defaced with black paint, especially on the faces of the figures.
The perpetrators also wrote messages alluding to the devil on both the image of the Virgin Mary on Apparition Hill and the one located next to the Blue Cross. “Do we still need more proof to see that this place belongs to God? The enemy doesn’t want conversion or the graces that happen here,” Father Navarro asked.The Queen of Peace Foundation denounced the events on social media, stating: “As our mother, the Queen of Peace, has taught us for over four decades, our response should not be hatred or resentment, but prayer, fasting, forgiveness, and love. Only in this way can peace overcome all darkness.”
The parish of Medjugorje issued a statement inviting people to pray “for the conversion of the hearts of those who committed this act, so that the Lord may touch them with his grace and lead them on the path of good.”“Let us also pray for peace in the hearts of all people. The Virgin Mary calls us incessantly to be bearers of peace. May this event also impel us to take her call even more seriously: not to respond to evil with evil, but to bear witness, with our own lives, to love, forgiveness, and hope,” the text continues.
According to the parish, activities at the site will proceed as normal. They also announced a plan “to clean and repair the damage so that all spaces are once again properly prepared for prayer.” The incident took place just four days before the start of the annual youth festival on Saturday, August 1, which is expected to draw thousands of pilgrims under the motto “To the source! – In the School of the Virgin.”
On June 24, 1981, six young people claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary for the first time on Mount Podbrdo in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Some of them still say they receive messages daily.In 2024, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith approved a document entitled The Queen of Peace. It values the spiritual fruits produced in the place, finds no obstacle in the alleged messages received, and does not pronounce on the supernatural nature of the phenomena.