Our Lady of Medjugorje (), also called Queen of Peace () and Mother of the Redeemer (), is the title given to alleged visions of Mary, the mother of Jesus, said to have begun in 1981 to six Herzegovinian Croat teenagers in Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina (at the time in SFR Yugoslavia). The alleged visionaries are Ivan Dragičević, Ivanka Ivanković, Jakov Čolo, Marija Pavlović, Mirjana Dragičević and Vicka Ivanković. They ranged from ten to sixteen years old at the time of the first apparition.

There have also been continued reports of the visionaries seeing and receiving messages from the apparition of Our Lady during the years since. The seers often refer to the apparition as the "", which is a Croatian archaism for lady. On 13 May 2017, Pope Francis declared that the original visions reported by the teenagers are worth studying in more depth, while the subsequently continued visions over the years are, in his view, of dubious value. As a pastoral initiative, after considering the considerable number of people who go to Medjugorje and the abundant "fruits of grace" that have sprung from it, the ban on officially organized pilgrimages was lifted by the Pope in May 2019. This was made official with the celebration of a youth festival among pilgrims and Catholic clergy in Medjugorie for five days in August 2019. However, this was not to be interpreted as an authentication of known events, which still require examination by the Catholic Church. Clerics and the faithful are not permitted to participate in meetings, conferences or public celebrations during which the credibility of such apparitions would be taken for granted.

Background

Political situation

At the time of the apparitions, the village of Medjugorje was in Bosnia and Herzegovina, part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, a federation of various Slavic nations. There were tensions among the nations, exacerbated by religious difference: most Croats are Catholic, most Serbs are Eastern Orthodox, while the Bosnians and Herzegovinians are a mix of the two and included a third group – the Bosnian Muslims. The death of President Josip Broz Tito in early May 1980 had led to anti-communist backlash and the build up of ethnic tensions, destabilizing the country. Yugoslavia was moving towards political, economic, and national collapse. The political crisis generated the economic one and the public debt soared. The Albanian anti-Serb riots in Kosovo in 1981 were an example of national dissatisfaction. After Tito's death, the security apparatus enhanced its activities against the perceived "enemies of the state", especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the apparatus was most loyal to Tito. Such activity was especially oriented towards the Catholic Church in Herzegovina.

In addition, the election of the Pope John Paul II from the communist Poland and the Catholic Solidarity Movement intensified the conflict between the Vatican and the Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe.

In the 1980s there was a boom of Marian apparitions in Europe, especially in Ireland and Italy. Chris Maunder connects these apparitions, including those in Medjugorje, with the anti-communist movement in Eastern Europe that led to the downfall of communism.

Religious situation

The Franciscan Province of Herzegovina was established in 1843 when it seceded from the Franciscan Province of Bosna Srebrena. In 1846, the Holy See established the Apostolic Vicariate of Herzegovina, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire and it was considered to be a mission area. The first vicars were all Franciscans. In 1881, the area came under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Pope Leo XIII took steps to establish dioceses and appoint local bishops.

The Franciscans of Herzegovina saw this as a threat, depriving them of a source of income and their role as community social leaders which they attained over centuries of “difficult missionary” work while under Turkish domination.

A jurisdictional conflict arose, known as the Herzegovina Affair or Herzegovina Case which dates back to 1923, when Rome made a decision to have the Franciscans turn over half of the parishes they control to the secular clergy. A smooth transition was inhibited by both a lack of sufficient diocesan clergy and by the resistance of the friars to the divestment of their parishes. The Franciscans complied only partially and have refused to comply with Rome's decisions ever since. Their resistance to this change put them into conflict with the Church's hierarchy, including their Franciscan Order in Rome. Their resistance to comply was against both church authority and canon law.

In 1933 Pope Pius XI requested the whole Catholic world to erect crosses on the dominant mountains in honor of the 1900th anniversary of the crucifixion of Jesus. In 1933 a massive cross was erected by the local Catholic diocese on a mountain near Medjuorje. The 1,770-foot peak was originally named Mount Sipovac but the locals changed the name to Mount Krizevac which means “Mount of the Cross.” They constructed the 33-foot-high cross weighing fifteen tons in six weeks, carrying all the building materials on their backs.

In 1975, Pope Paul VI, Romanis Pontificibus, decreed that the Franciscans must withdraw from most of the parishes in the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno, retaining 30 and leaving 52 to the diocesan clergy. In the 1980s the Franciscans still held 40 parishes under the direction of 80 friars. In August 1980, the new bishop of Mostar, Pavao Zanic immediately announced that only one quarter of the city would remain under the Franciscans.
The Mostar Cathedral of Mary, Mother of the Church was completed in the summer of 1980.

According to Michael Budde in his book Beyond the Borders of Baptism Catholicity, Allegiances, and Lived Identities, as it gained a national and international reputation, the Medjugorje pilgrimage site became a formidable symbol of the power of religion in the fight against the Communist Yugoslav regime.

Initial events

On 24 June 1981 around 6:30pm, fifteen-year-old Ivanka Ivanković and her friend, a sixteen-year-old, Mirjana Dragičević, were on a walk to talk and have a smoke. Ivanka was startled to notice the shimmering silhouette of a woman bathed in a brilliant light on nearby Mount Podbrdo. She immediately said, “Mirjana, look, it’s Gospa!” (Our Lady) She brought this to Mirjana’s attention, but Mirjana scoffed at the idea and they continued on their way. They then met Milka Pavlovic, 13, who asked them to help bring in the sheep, so the three returned to the nearby hill, where all three saw the apparition. They were then joined by their friend Vicka Ivanković, 17, who saw the Gospa and was so frightened, she ran down the hill. Driven by curiosity, she returned with Ivan Dragičević, 16, and Ivan Ivankovic, 20 who were picking apples. Ivan Dragičević was so frightened that he dropped his apples and bolted. Later they said they all saw the same apparition. "The Medjugorje visions began only days after Orthodox Serbs commemorated the 40th anniversary of mass killings of Serbs by the Ustaše at Šurmanci during the Second World War."

The next day Ivanka Ivankovic, Mirjana Dragicevic, Vicka Ivankovic, and Ivan Dragicevic returned to the site. Ivan Ivankovic did not accompany them. As Milka Pavlovic's mother kept her home to help in the garden, Vicka Ivankovic brought along Milka's sister, Marija Pavlovic, and ten-year-old Jakov Colo. Milka experienced no further apparitions. The six seers told the Franciscan friar Father Jozo Zovko, who was the parish priest at St. James Church in Medjugorje, that they had seen the Virgin Mary (Gospa). He was initially skeptical. He noticed that the seers became agitated if anyone hinted that were lying and he was taken by the fact that their physical descriptions of the Gospa were consistent with each other. According to Randall Sullivan, they described her as "...a young woman about twenty years old, they said, with blue eyes, black hair, and a crown of stars around Her head; She wore a white veil and bluish-grey robe. Each of the children said they had not been able to see the Virgin's feet, described Her as hovering just above the ground on a white cloud, and said she spoke in a singing voice." In early July, pastor Jozo Zovko rejected his initial skepticism and embraced the apparitions.

The Mostar Cathedral of Mary, Mother of the Church was completed in the summer of 1980. In order to create the cathedral parish it was decided to split the parish of SS. Peter and Paul. The Franciscans objected to this as being unfair. Friars Ivica Vego and Ivan Prusina, were chaplains in the parish of SS Peter and Paul in Mostar, who refused to obey the Papal decree Romanis Pontificibus and relocate from the parish. After several warnings, Bishop Žanić suspended their priestly faculties throughout the dioceses under his jurisdiction.
Yugoslav officials condemned the reports as "clerical-nationalist" conspiracy on the part of Croat extremists. Bishop Žanić took a stand for the seers and the local Franciscans against the communist authorities who tried to prosecute them. He informed the Pope about the events in September 1981.

Vicka allegedly received messages from the Madonna from 19 December 1981 until 29 September 1982, and recorded them in her diary. On 21 September Fr. Ivan Prusina, along with other Franciscans, with the help of the crowd, violently expelled diocesan priests from the parish.

On 15 January 1982, the bishop invited the alleged seers to his residence to ask them if there were any messages from the Madonna on the issue, and they replied that there were not. However, on 3 April 1982, the seers came to the bishop to tell him that the Madonna scolded them for not telling the truth and that she requested that the two friars remain in Mostar and continue to celebrate mass and hear confessions. The Madonna allegedly told Vicka that Fr. Ivan Prusina and Fr. Ivica Vego "are not guilty of anything" in the matter. Tomislav Vlašić took responsibility for the lies of the seers telling the bishop he instructed them not to tell the truth because the bishop might dispute the authenticity of the apparitions.

On 21 June 1983, one of the seers, Ivan Dragičević, sent a threatening message allegedly from the Madonna to the bishop, in which she requests the bishop's conversion regarding her apparitions, otherwise, he would be "judged by me and my son Jesus.” On 6 February 1985, Ivan Dragičević sent somewhat more tolerant message from the Madonna, with her stating that if he doesn't believe in her apparitions, at least he shouldn't persecute her priests who believe in her messages and promote them.”

In the opinion of Peter Jan Margry's, the deviancy of such reported Marian apparitions is observed in their formal espousing of Catholic teachings, and obedience to the Church and the Pope, while in practice, they consider the messages to be authentic revelations, have connections to excommunicated priests, and disobey the Church and the Pope.

The Archbishop of Split-Makarska Frane Franić, who supported the alleged apparitions from the beginning, tried to persuade Vicka to retract the messages about the two friars, so the authenticity of the apparitions could be defended more easily. However, both Vicka and Ivan continued to claim that the messages regarding the two friars were from the Madonna. The messages included the accusations against Bishop Pavao Žanić and encouragement for the two friars not to leave the parish. It was then when Bishop Pavao took his final negative stance on the alleged apparitions.

The whole of that time, the Bishop remained cautious towards the apparitions, without any final conclusion. He became skeptical towards the apparitions after the apparition accused him of the disorder in Herzegovina that existed between the Franciscans and the diocesan clergy and defended the two Franciscans who refused to leave their parishes as requested by the Papal decree Romanis Pontificibus.

Because of his disobedience, Fr. Ivan Prusina had his priestly jurisdiction revoked by Bishop Pavao Žanić on 9 October 1980. Fr. Ivan Prusina and Fr. Ivica Vego appealed to the Franciscan Order and the Congregation for Clergy, who declined their appeal considering the decisions to be final. However, the Apostolic Signatura, the highest judicial court of the Holy See, concluded on 27 March 1993 that they had a right on appeal and saw this as a violation of the procedure and declared the dismissal to be null and void; the same followed for Fr. Ivica Vego as well. The Franciscan Province of Herzegovina tried to present this as a sign of victory against the bishop, however, the bishop's revocation of Fr. Ivan Prusina's priestly jurisdiction remained in force, and the Apostolic Signature never reviewed the matter itself, only the procedural defects. It later became known that Fr. Ivica Vego had impregnated a nun, whom he eventually married and lives with her near Medjugorje. Velikonja wrote that it "would not have succeeded had it not been for the rich and long religious tradition of the region."

Government response
In 1982, the communist authorities changed their stance towards the Medjugorje phenomenon and no longer observed the event as political, but as an economic benefit. In the winter of 1983, the authorities started to promote religious tourism. In 1983 the state-owned publishing house, A. G. Matos published the book The Madonna's apparitions in Medjugorje (Croatian: Gospina ukazanja u Međugorju) by Ljudevit Rupčić's, who was a theologian and Herzegovinian Franciscan loyal to Medjugorje. The state-owned tourist agencies also started offering their services to the Medjugorje pilgrims in 1984. The Yugoslav state-owned aviation company, Jat Airways, introduced special lines for the pilgrims from Italy. From the mid-1980s, the Yugoslav media also became supportive of the Medjugorje phenomenon, emphasizing its economic aspects.

Local Catholic Church response

Pavao Žanić

Initially, Bishop Žanić defended the seers and the possibility of Our Lady appearing to them, although not endorsing the visions themselves. He informed the Pope about the events on 6 September 1981. Žanić set up a commission of inquiry and prepared to forward its results to Rome. However, apparitions continued, and messages from Our Lady piled up. In time, it became clear that Our Lady sided with the disobedient Franciscans against the bishop. According to Vicka's diaries, Our Lady was consulted several times on the situation of Franciscan priests who were ordered to hand over the administration of the parishes in Mostar. Our Lady reportedly replied that the bishop was to blame for the whole situation and that the Franciscan priests should continue their mission. Žanić saw in this proof that the seers had been manipulated and that the apparitions were false.

He soon began to speak publicly about his doubts. In 1983, Žanić received a letter from one of the visionaries, Ivan Dragičević, stating that Our Lady "sends a penultimate warning to the bishop" and further stating that "if he does not address or correct himself, he will be tried by my court and the court of my son Jesus." Žanić was stunned, so he forwarded the letter to the Vatican the same day. He said that "the issue was resolved" for him. Since Žanić led the process of parish reorganization, he considered the apparitions to be a Franciscan fabrication in order to damage his reputation in the diocese. Such a message from Our Lady was proof to him that he was right. The Franciscans used the pilgrimages to their advantage, but at the same time claimed that the apparitions took place spontaneously at the initiative of Our Lady.

In 1984, Žanić published a statement in which he disputed the authenticity of the events in Medjugorje, denouncing the Franciscans who promoted apparitions. More specifically, Žanić warned that Tomislav Vlašić, a priest in Medjugorje who was the spiritual father of seers, was a "manipulator and deceiver". Žanić was especially critical of Vlašić, who became the spiritual director of the alleged seers and whose sexual scandal wasn't public yet.
Two years later, Žanić sent a report to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was then led by Joseph Ratzinger, claiming that the Medjugorje apparitions were not authentic.

Žanić publicly called for the abolition of pilgrimages in the church organization, and the Vatican supported him. However, the Vatican expressed the view that individual pilgrimages should be provided with pastoral care and access to the sacraments.

However, Žanić was unable to prevent public opinion in the Catholic world regarding Medjugorje, which has already become a global phenomenon. Proponents of the apparition rejected the bishop's authority and felt that the bishop had overlooked divine intervention for personal reasons, so the 1985 commission's negative decision on the apparitions was ignored. The Vatican did not come to Žanić's aid, but remained silent, leading to speculation about the Pope's support for Medjugorje. It is likely that Pope John Paul II somewhat favored Medjugorje behind the scenes, given that Medjugorje was appropriate for Vatican foreign policy during the 1980s. Namely, at that time, the Vatican was providing support to the United States in overthrowing the communist bloc in Eastern Europe.

Although Medjugorje supporters sought to characterize Žanić as a stubborn and unjust critic, a person easy to ignore, in 1991, the Yugoslav Bishops' Conference decided, declaring that "based on previous research, it is not possible to determine the supernatural character of the apparitions" in Medjugorje.

Ratko Perić

Ratko Perić, who succeeded Žanić in 1993, remained as hostile towards the apparitions as his predecessor. Perić published two books on the Virgin Mary arguing his opposition to the Medjugorje phenomenon. He exclaimed his personal opinion that not only that the supernatural origin of the apparitions wasn't established, but that the nonsupernatural has been established, a more negative judgment than that of the Yugoslav bishops' conference of 1991.

Petar Palić

Petar Palić succeeded Perić in 2020. So far, Palić hasn't made position on Medjugorje public. However, a report from Deutsche Welle stated that Palić holds similar views as his predecessor Perić.

Commissions investigating Medjugorje

First diocesan commission, 1982–1984

In January 1982, Žanić established the first of two commissions for the investigation of the apparitions. The first commission was made up of four members of the Ecclesiastical Authority and was active from 1982 to 1984. The diocesan commission formed in 1982 and reconstituted in 1984 made a negative conclusion on the apparitions in 1985 that the supernatural was not established.

Second diocesan commission, 1984–1986

In February 1984, Žanić expanded the initial commission to fifteen members. It included nine professors from various theological faculties and two psychiatrists. The second commission examined Fr. Tomislav Vlašić's Chronicles and Vicka's diaries. The Chronicles and diaries were found to be non-credible, with records kept irregularly, entered subsequently, and some parts of Vicka's diaries forged. The commission asked Vlašić to hand over the Chronicle, which Vlašić did, but only with a long delay and after modifying the Chronicle. In May 1986, the Commission declared that it could not establish that the events in Medjugorje were of a supernatural character.

Yugoslav National Conference of Bishops, 1987–1991

In January 1987 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith removed the matter from the local bishop and placed the decision into the hands of the Yugoslav National Conference of Bishops who created a new enquiry. The Bishops conference agreed with the second commission and ruled "non constat de supernaturalitate,” stating in April 1991 that, it cannot be confirmed that supernatural apparitions and revelations are occurring and would leave that decision to a future date. The Conference had instructed that pilgrimages should not be organized to Medjugorje on the supposition of its being supernatural. In its statement the commission made note that since many pilgrims come to Medjugorje from all over the world and these people need pastoral care and guidance. The Vatican made it clear that the bishops were not allowed to organize pilgrimages but they could join them.

Bishop Žanić retired in 1993 and his replacement, Bishop Peric's, expressed his own personal opinion that the visions of Medjugorje were constat de non supernaturalitate (it is not of a supernatural nature).

Ruini Commission - the international Vatican Commission, 2010–2014

In 2010, an international Vatican commission was set up by Pope Benedict XVI to study Medjugorje.
The Holy See announced that it had established a commission, headed by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, to examine the Medjugorje phenomenon. Other prominent members of the commission included Cardinals Jozef Tomko, Vinko Puljić, Josip Bozanić, Julián Herranz and Angelo Amato, as well as psychologists, theologians, mariologists, and canonists. The commission was established to "collect and examine all the material,” and publish a "detailed report" based on its findings. It was tasked to evaluate the alleged apparitions and to make appropriate pastoral recommendations for those pilgrims who continued to go to Medjugorje despite the ban on official pilgrimages. The commission was active until 17 January 2014.

The Ruini Commission made a distinction between the first appearances from 24 June 1981 until 3 July 1981, with reportedly 13 votes in favor of those apparitions being of "supernatural" origin, one vote against, and an expert with a suspensive vote. According to Andrea Tornielli, the commission noted that "the seers were caught by surprise by the apparition, and that nothing of what they had seen was influenced by either the Franciscans of the parish or any other subjects. They showed resistance in telling what happened despite being arrested by the police and death threatened them. The commission also rejected the hypothesis of a demonic origin of the apparitions." Regarding the rest of the apparitions, the commission found them to be influenced by heavy interference caused by the conflict between the Franciscans of the parish and the bishop. The commission deemed later visions to be "pre-announced and programmed", and they continued despite the seers stating they would end.

Also, the Commission found that there were no miraculous healings connected to the apparitions in Medjugorje.

Regarding the pastoral fruits of Medjugorje, the commission voted in two phases. Firstly they focused on the spiritual fruits of Medjugorje but putting aside the behaviors of the seers. They voted six in favor of the positive outcome, seven stating they are mixed with most being positive, and the other three experts stating the fruits are a mix of positive and negative. In the second phase, taking into consideration the behavior of the seers, twelve members stated that they could not express their opinion, and the other two members voted against the supernatural origin of the phenomenon.

The commission endorsed the end of the ban on pilgrimages organized in Medjugorje. Cindy Wooden wrote that the commission recommended that the Pope "designate the town's parish Church of St. James as a pontifical shrine with Vatican oversight."

The Ruini Report was completed in 2014 and was received by Pope Francis. After examining it, the Pope assigned the Polish Archbishop Henryk Hoser a "special mission of the Holy See" with the purpose of exploring the pastoral situation. On 7 May 2015, Pope Francis announced the results would be released soon. On 11 June 2015, the Vatican's chief spokesman communicated that no decision was expected until the Fall of 2015.

Andrea Tornielli of Vatican Insider wrote that the report was viewed with some reservations by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith led by Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, which expressed doubts regarding the apparitions and the "Ruini report, considered an authoritative contribution to be compared with other opinions and reports." According to eKai, Müller said in April 2017 regarding Medjugorje, "We have to wait a long time for the authenticity of the apparitions in Medjugorje to be confirmed." He pointed out that while Archbishop Hoser is focused on the regulation of the pastoral issues, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is dealing with the truthfulness of the alleged visions. eKai notes that Müller said that the Congregation examines the "truthfulness of her message so as to present the results of our work to the Holy Father so that he may decide and declare their truthfulness." eKai reports that Müller also said, "we cannot separate the pastoral question from the question of the truthfulness of the apparitions."

According to Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, on 31 May 2018, Pope Francis nominated Archbishop Hoser a second time “as special apostolic visitor for the parish of Medjugorje” with the mandate lasting for “an undefined period..." at the discretion of the Pope. Archbishop Hoser was appointed by Pope Francis to evaluate the quality of pastoral care people were receiving at Medjugorje.

The commission endorsed the end of the ban on pilgrimages organized in Medjugorje. It was recommended by the commission that the town's parish Church of St. James be made a pontifical shrine with Vatican oversight. The Ruini Report was completed in 2014 and was received by Pope Francis.

Position of the popes

Pope John Paul II

According to the historian Robert Orsi in his book History and Presence, "Our Lady of Medjugorje attracted a vast international following that included many members of the Catholic hierarchy, among them Pope John Paul II." John Paul II in the Roman Catholic tradition, leaves the decision about the Medjugorje apparition to the local clergy. At the same time, it is commonly known that he is sympathetic to the Medjugorje Marian site. The Pope's support for Medjugorje was tacit and served the Vatican's foreign policy reasons during the 1980s. Namely, at that time, the Vatican was providing support to the United States in overthrowing the communist bloc in Eastern Europe.

There are a number of statements attributed to Pope John Paul II regarding the Medjugorje phenomenon. Some of these statements were denied. Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, when presented a list of statements, responded, “I can only say that the statements about Medjugorje attributed to the Holy Father and me are mere fabrications." ("frei erfunden") Many other similar claims supportive of the Medjugorje phenomenon were attributed not just to Pope, but many other Church officials, with none of them being proved as authentic. One such claim of Bishop Pavol Hnilica was denied by the Vatican's Secretariat of State.

According to Bishop Peric, both Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI supported the judgments of the local bishops. The pope's private secretary Stanisław Dziwisz stated that the Pope had entrusted the whole matter to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and thereafter maintained "a prudent distance." Pope John Paul II allegedly confided in a number of Catholic confidantes about how he felt about Medjugorje. The Vatican has never confirmed those statements.

Christian apologist Patrick Madrid characterizes the witnessing from Medjugorje supporters about how Pope John Paul II favored the authenticity of the apparitions as "apocryphal.”I am not aware of the Holy Father ever publicly commenting, one way or the other, whether verbally or in writing, on Medjugorje....[T]here are numerous instances of private comments alleged to have been made by JPII about Medjugorje, but none that I am aware of which have been verified with documentation, such as video or audio recordings. Peruse these comments, and you’ll see they are all third-hand.

Daniel Klimek in his book, Medjugorje and the Supernatural, notes Slawomir Oder dedicated a section in his book examining John Paul II's devotion to the Medjugorje apparitions. He also wrote that Oder was appointed as the postulator to make the case for the canonization of John Paul II. Oder wrote that he was appointed on May 13, 2005, by Cardinal Camillo Ruini and that his book, Why He is a Saint, recounts the work he did during the process of reviewing the volumes of material gathered and entrusted to him. According to Oder, John Paul II privately confided to others that he felt the events at Medjugorje were genuine.

According to Paul Kengor, in May 1982 Bishop Pavol Hnilica, who was close to Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II, traveled to Russia with Mother Teresa's confessor and spiritual advisor, Monsignor Leo Maasburg, to be present in Russia, when Pope John Paul II consecrated Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on May 13, 1982. Marie Czernin wrote that when Hnilica returned to Rome, Pope John Paul II met with him and said, among other things, "Medjugorje is the continuation of Fatima, it is the completion of Fatima!" Hnilica was a member of the Secretariat of the "Queen of Peace Committee", along with other prominent supporters of the Medjugorje phenomenon, including Jozo Zovko and Slavko Barbarić.

Antonio Gaspari from Inside the Vatican wrote that the pope said, "If I were not the Pope, I would probably have visited Medjugorje by now."

According to Antonio Gaspari, Cardinal Frantisek Tomasek, Archbishop Emeritus of Prague heard Pope John Paul II state that if he wasn't pope, he would have liked to have been in Medjugorje helping with the pilgrimages.

According to Daniel Klimek, Mirjana Dragicevic, one of the seers, attended a general audience at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in July 1987 and when John Paul II discovered who she was, he invited her to a private meeting for the following morning at Castel Gandolfo, the pope's private residence. During their conversation, this was what he said regarding Medjugorje: “Please ask the pilgrims in Medjugorje to pray for my intentions. I know all about Medjugorje. I’ve followed the messages from the beginning. Take good care of Medjugorje, Mirjana. Medjugorje is the hope for the entire world. If I were not Pope, I would have gone to Medjugorje a long time ago.” Cardinal Dziwisz said, "I can exclude it in the strongest terms. They say that one of the visionaries, though it isn’t clear if it was Mirjana or Vicka, came one day to the general audience and greeted the Pope as he passed. But he said nothing to her. Otherwise he would have remembered. Besides, the Pope had not even realized who it was."

Marek and Zofia Skwarnicki, personal friends of John Paul II, made available letters he wrote in Polish to them, positively referring to Medjugorje. Klimek wrote that “in one letter, John Paul II directly referenced the presence of the Virgin Mary in Medjugorje.” Denis Nolan points out that John Paul II wrote on the back of a picture of a saint giving to the Skwarnickis: "I thank Zofia for everything concerning Medjugorje. I too go there every day in prayer: I am united with all who are praying there and who receive the call to prayer from there. Today we better understand the summons."

According to journalist Mary Rourke, Jozo Zovko, the Franciscan Pastor during the alleged apparitions, on June 17, 1992, met with John Paul II in Rome during the wars in former Yugoslavia. The pope said regarding Medjugorje, "I give you my blessing. Take courage I am with you. Tell Medjugorje I am with you. Protect Medjugorje. Protect Our Lady's messages.” Rourke also wrote that Zovko said, “the pope shook my hand, very firmly, and said ‘Guard Medjugorje, protect Medjugorje.'"

Antonio Gaspari wrote that during a meeting with the Superior General of the Franciscan Order, the Holy Father asked: "All around Medjugorje bombs have been falling, and yet Medjugorje itself was never damaged. Is this not perhaps a miracle of God?"

Paul Kengor wrote in his book, A Pope and A President that John Paul II said, "If they are converting, praying, fasting, going to confession and doing penance, let them go to Medjugorje."

Pope Benedict XVI (2005–2013)

Neither Pope Benedict XVI nor the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was considered pro-Medjugorje. During Benedict's pontificate, Vatican officials were generally distrustful of the Franciscans who controlled the seers and promoted Mary's alleged messages and apparitions. When Benedict XVI resigned from the papacy, many Medjugorje supporters were relieved.

Like Pope John Paul II, many affirmative statements regarding Medjugorje were attributed to Pope Benedict XVI while he was still a cardinal, which in July 1998, he dismissed as "mere fabrications.”

Bishop Perić visited Rome in 2006 and reported that in his discussion with Pope Benedict XVI regarding the Medjugorje phenomenon, the pope said, "We at the congregation always asked ourselves how can any believer accept as authentic apparitions that occur every day and for so many years?"

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI laicised the former spiritual director of the alleged seers Tomislav Vlašić.

In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI has set up an international Vatican commission, the Ruini Commission, to study Medjugorje. The work of the commission was difficult from the very beginning due to the disagreement of the members. Some of the key members felt that the commission could not make a decision at all while the alleged apparitions were going on and stopped coming to the commission meetings. However, by the end of Benedict's term, the commission had not completed its work, and its results were inherited by Benedict's successor, Pope Francis.

Pope Francis (2013–present)

In a May 2017 interview, Pope Francis commented on the findings of the commission headed by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, stating that the report said of the initial apparitions that they "need to continue being studied" and expressed doubts in the later apparitions. He also expressed his own suspicion towards the apparitions saying he prefers "the Madonna as Mother, our Mother, and not a woman who's the head of the telegraphic office, who sends a message every day.”

The Rome Reports reported that the Pope said, "there are people who go there and convert, people that find God and their lives change," and "this is a spiritual and pastoral fact that cannot be denied."

Croatian president Zoran Milanović, after meeting the Pope in November 2021, commented that the "commercialisation of Medjugorje is an obstacle to the serious regulation of the status of Medjugorje" and added that "it would be good if Gospa would stop appearing every day".

Pastoral evaluation

In February 2017, Sr. Bernadette Mary Reis of the Vatican News reported that Pope Francis named Polish Archbishop Henryk Hoser as a special envoy to "acquire more in-depth knowledge of the pastoral situation in Medjugorje" and “above all, the needs of the faithful who come to pilgrimage” to “suggest any pastoral initiatives for the future.”

In 2017, around two million people from around eighty countries from all over the world visited Medjugorje. The Archbishop reported his findings to the Pope in the summer of 2017.

On 31 May 2018, Pope Francis nominated Archbishop Hoser a second time as the special envoy, the apostolic visitor, for Medjugorje with the mandate lasting in length at the discretion of the Pope. Archbishop Hoser was appointed by Pope Francis to evaluate the quality of pastoral care people were receiving at Medjugorje. Cindy Wooden of Catholic News Service wrote that the Ruini Commission had recommended that the town's parish Church of St. James be made "a pontifical shrine with Vatican oversight" and lift the ban on pilgrimages, both diocesan and parish. Wooden wrote that Father Perrella said from a pastoral perspective, this would both recognize the devotion, prayer and conversions of the millions who travel to Medjugorje and "ensure that 'a pastor and not a travel agency' is in charge of what happens there".

According to Marshall Connolly of the media company California Network, what Hoser witnessed convinced the archbishop that something genuine has happened. According to Catholic Online, Hoser told the Polish Catholic news agency, KAI, "All indications are that the revelations will be recognized, perhaps even this year." He added, "Specifically, I think it is possible to recognize the authenticity of the first apparitions as proposed by the Ruini commission."

Polish Archbishop Henryk Hoser, the special apostolic visitor for the parish of Medjugorje since February 2017, died on Friday, August 13, 2021, at the Hospital of the Ministry of Interior in Warsaw, Poland. On November 27, 2021, Pope Francis appointed a new apostolic visitor, Archbishop Aldo Cavalli, for the parish of Medjugorje.

Authorization of official pilgrimages

According to Elise Harris, on May 12, 2019, Pope Francis authorized pilgrimages to Medjugorje considering the significant number of people who come to Medjugorje and "the abundant fruits of grace that flow from it." While pilgrimages can now be officially organized by dioceses and parishes, the permission did not address still outstanding doctrinal questions relating to the authenticity of the alleged visions. As a result, the Apostolic Visitor "will have a greater facility—together with the bishops of these places—of establishing relations with the priests who organize these pilgrimages” to ensure that they are “sound and well prepared."
The first sanctioned event was the Thirtieth Annual Youth Festival, which took place from August 1–6, 2019. During the pilgrimage, approximately 50,000 young Catholics from all over the world took part.

Biographies of the assumed seers

Ivanka Ivanković
Ivanka Ivanković was born in Bijakovići in 1966. At the time of the alleged apparitions, she was 14. Her mother had died in May of that year. She was the first to see the apparition. She, like Ivan Dragičević and Vicka Dragičević, claims that Gospa told her biography between January and May 1983. She claims to have had regular apparitions until May 7, 1985, and that since then the apparitions occur once a year on the anniversary of her first apparition, June 24, 1981. She claims all ten secrets were given to her by Gospa.

She is married to Rajko Elez with whom she has three children. Rajko Elez is one of six sons who owns a local restaurant. They live in Međjugorje.

Mirjana Dragičević Soldo

Mirjana Dragičević Soldo was born in 1965, in Sarajevo. She was 15 at the time of the alleged apparitions. She lived in Sarajevo for some time, where she finished her education. She was the second person to see the Gospa. She claims she had regular apparitions between 24 June 1981, and 25 December 1982. She said that she became depressed when the visions stopped and prayed to see the Gospa again. According to Kutleša, Soldo was given all ten secrets, which are intended "for humanity in general, for the world, then for Međugorje, for Yugoslavia, and some other areas and about the sign". Mirjana said that the Gospa left her a gift that she will see the Gospa on her birthday. According the book Ogledalo Pravde, Soldo said that as of 2 August 1987, "every second day of the month I hear our Lady's voice in me, and sometimes I see her, and with her I pray for the unbelievers". As of 2 January 1997, Soldo knew at what time the Gospa would come - 10 to 11am.

She claims that the apparition told her ten secrets, which are intended "for humanity in general, for the world, then for Međugorje, Yugoslavia, and some other areas". Soldo also said that every seer has a special mission. She was given those who do not know the love of God, Vicka Ivanković and Jakov Čolo for the sick, Ivan Dragičević for the young and the priests, Marija Pavlović for the souls in purgatory, and Ivanka Ivanković for families.

Soldo has been married to Marko Soldo, the nephew of the late Franciscan Father Slavko Barbarić, since 1989 and they have two children. They live in Međugorje, where they own a hotel. They also own a mansion at the Croatian island of Hvar in Sućuraj. One of her daughters, Veronika, studied at the University of Mostar.

Soldo wrote her autobiography titled Moje srce će pobijediti (“My Heart will Triumph”).

On March 18, 2020, Mirjana Dragićević announced that the Blessed Mother would no longer appear to her at that time, the second of each month.

Marija Pavlović Lunetti

Marija Pavlović Lunetti was born on 1965, in Bijakovići near Međugorje. She finished secondary school in Mostar. To save her brother's life, she donated one of her kidneys. She was 16 at the time of the alleged apparitions of Our Lady, whom she first saw on June 25, 1981. She says she receives daily apparitions, was given nine secrets from the Gospa and receives a message on the 25th of each month for the entire world. These messages were first made public by the Franciscans overseeing the visionaries, Tomislav Vlašić, then after him Slavko Barbarić. She was given the mission to pray for the souls in purgatory.

She is married to Italian Paolo Lunetti with whom she has four children. Even though she lives most of the year in Milan, Italy, she visits Medjugorje often. She was asked by an Italian journalist, why she didn't become a nun, to which she replied that even though she felt drawn to the monastery, she realized that her vocation is about witnessing what she saw and felt. She said that she will be able to seek the way of holiness outside the monastery.

Later, in February 1988, she joined fra Tomislav Vlašić, a New Age promoter, and his group of 15 young men and women in the community "Queen of Peace, - totally yours – Through Mary to Jesus" in Parma, Italy. Rene Laurentin wrote that her joining Vlašić's group was "enthusiastic". Together they participated in spiritual exercises for five months which were completely focused on prayer. Vlašić was an ex-friar since 1987, who with his German assistant, Agnes Heupel, founded a mystic community. Heupel claimed to receive messages from Gospa. Vlašić claimed that through Lunetti's testimony the community was a work of Gospa herself, and that Lunetti had delivered an answer, in March 1987, to his question to Gospa about the community. Vlašić claimed that Lunetti stated: "This is God's plan" and that "Gospa leads the group through father Tomislav and Agnes, through which she sends her messages for the community".

Her friends and family in Medjugorje were alarmed over her compliance, concerned about Vlasic's ambitions. They helped her extricate from the group. She left in July 1988 and denied in writing ever receiving any messages regarding the community from the Gospa. According to Randall Sullivan, in Lunetti's open letter, written after she left the group in July 1988, she stated that Vlašić's claim "absolutely does not correspond to the truth."

Pavlović Lunetti was also a subject to a major embarrassment when she openly publicly endorsed Maria Valtorta's book The Poem of the Man-God. Valltorta's book contains alleged supernatural revelations, designated by the Church authorities as "fraudulent or stemming from a diseased mind". Pavlović Lunetti said that Madonna told her regarding the book that it "can be read... it makes for good reading". Her statements scandalised Catholic theologians.

Vicka Ivanković Mijatović

Vicka Ivanković Mijatović is the oldest of the alleged seers, born in 1964, in Bijakovići, a village near Međugorje. She was 16 at the time of the alleged apparitions. She said she had daily apparitions, and on occasions two, three, four or five times a day.
Vicka said that the Gospa dictated to her the details of her life on earth from January 1983 to April 1985. It filled up three notebooks. She said she prayed and talked with Our Lady and was given nine secrets. Her prayer mission, given by the Blessed Virgin Mary, is to pray for the sick. Vicka says that her daily apparitions have not yet stopped.

According to Nikola Bulat, who examined Vicka's diaries for the commission, Tomislav Vlašić was the first spiritual guide of the seers and the chronicler of the apparitions. This chronicle covers the period from 11 August 1981 to 15 October 1983. Vicka said that some of her diaries were written by her sister and some she wrote. One of the controversies of the Međugorje phenomenon was her diary about the apparitions, which went public with or without her consent. She claimed that the copying of her diaries occurred without her knowledge or consent.

She married Marijo Mijatović in 2002 and they have two children. The Mijatovićs live in a wall enclosed villa in Krehin Gradac near Medjugorje.

Ivan Dragičević

Ivan Dragičević was born in Mostar in 1965. He was 15 at the time of the alleged apparitions. After graduating from elementary school, he enrolled at a secondary school in Čitluk, but failed to pass. In August 1981 he applied to the seminary of the Herzegovinian Franciscan Province, where he was already known for the alleged apparitions so he was sent to a seminary in Visoko. In the seminary, he also claimed to have daily apparitions.

While in the Franciscan seminary, he claimed that Gospa came to an image of Jesus and said: "Angel, this is your father". It was written in Ogledalo pravde that such doctrine is nowhere to be found, in the Bible or in Church tradition. Dragičević claimed, like Vicka Dragičević, that the Gospa imparted her biography to him from December 1982 to May 1983. The seers claimed that the Gospa presented Ivan Dragičević to them and conveyed his greetings on 12 November 1981. When Ivan Dragičević appeared to other seers, they saw him "spreading his arms to fly out of joy" and the Madonna told him that she will not appear to him as of 15 November, due to school obligations. He appeared to Vicka and Jakov three days later as well.
Again he failed to pass and was sent to the gymnasium in Dubrovnik, where it was thought he would pass the class more easily. He was unsuccessful there as well and left the school altogether in January 1983.

Dragičević married Laureen Murphy, a former Miss Massachusetts, in 1994. They have four children and live in Boston for six months and then reside for the other half of the year in the parish of Medjugorje. His wife owns a tourist agency for pilgrims to Medjugorje. Dragičević owns a hotel in Medjugorje and a property worth a million of the United States dollars.

In October 2013, Archbishop Gerhard Müller of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith wished the U.S. bishops to be aware that Dragicevic was scheduled to give presentations at parishes across the country and was anticipated to have more apparitions during these talks. According to the Catholic Stand, the Apostolic Nunciature to the United States advised the bishops that the 1991 Zadar declaration that Catholics, whether clergy or laypeople, "are not permitted to participate in meetings, conferences or public celebrations during which the credibility of such 'apparitions' would be taken for granted". The letter was sent to every diocese in the U.S. as the CDF determined that the judgment of the Yugoslavian bishops which precluded such gatherings remained in force.

Jakov Čolo

Jakov Čolo was born in Bijakovići on March 6, 1971. His father abandoned the family when he was eight years old and his mother died from alcoholism when he was twelve. He was 10 at the time of the alleged apparitions. He claimed to have had daily apparitions from June 25, 1981, to September 12, 1998. As of then, he said that he has one apparition a year on Christmas Day and that the Gospa told him the tenth secret.

He married Annalisa Barozzi, an Italian, in 1993. They have three children and live in Međugorje.

Other alleged seers

Jozo Zovko

Jozo Zovko, the former parish priest of Medjugorje, who was there from the beginning of the visions, was skeptical at first but in time he became the seers preeminent advocate and protector. He allegedly had a vision of Our Lady in a church on 11 April 1983.

Jakov Čolo and Vicka Ivanković claim to have seen an apparition of Zovko on 19 October 1981, while he was on trial at the time. While they prayed, they saw Zovko, who was smiling with the Madonna. Rene Laurentin wrote that Zovko "tells them not to be afraid for him, that everything was well."

The Madonna is said to have appeared to Jakov and Vicka on 21 October 1981. Rene Laurentin wrote that she told them not to worry about Zovko and said that "Jozo looks well and he greets you warmly. Do not fear for Jozo. He is a saint. I have already told you." Rene Laurentin wrote that the apparition told them that the "sentence will not be pronounced this evening. Do not be afraid, he will not be condemned to a severe punishment..." In Vlašić's chronicle, it was written that the apparition told them that the trial will be continued, however, the trial was over that very day, and the sentence was published the day after. Zovko's sentence was reduced to  years in prison. In February 1983 the communists released Zovko after 18 months of hard labor.

Jelena Vasilj

Jelena Vasilj, a young woman from Medjugorje, allegedly also had interior locutions of Our Lady on 24 May 1983.

Economic impact
According to Daniel McLaughlin of the Irish Times, although the Yugoslav authorities initially regarded the apparitions as little more than a conspiracy on the part of Croat extremists, gradually "the cash-strapped Yugoslav authorities realized the commercial potential of Medjugorje." Paolo Apolito writes that during the 1980s, Medjugorje was visited by a million pilgrimages on average. The number of visits continued after the end of Bosnian War in 1995.

The popularity of the Medjugorje apparitions turned the local community from a rural to a regional center. Journalist Inés San Martin described Medjugorje as "barely more than a village in 1981, and has since grown to become one big hotel, with restaurants and religious shops being the only commercial activity at hand." San Martin continues, "the holy industry of Medjugorje is in no way unique. From Rome’s St. Peter’s Square to Lourdes, vendors of endless religious articles, from an image of the Virgin to bobbing pope heads are always part of the scenery at any major Catholic venue."

Some profits were illegally used to fund the Croat military. One example is a businessman from the United Kingdom who used the money he apparently collected funds for the war orphans, but the money was channeled to the Croat military.

According to the Guardian, in 1997, the Hercegovačka Banka was founded "by several private companies and the Franciscan order, which controls the religious shrine in Medjugorje, a major source of income, both from pilgrims and from donations by Croats living abroad." Located in Mostar, the bank has branches in several towns. In 2001, the bank was investigated for possible ties to Bosnian Croat separatists attempting to forge an independent mini-state in Croat areas of Bosnia. Fra Tomislav Pervan and Fra Ivan Ševan were members of the supervisory board of the bank, along with three former officers of the Croatian Defence Council. According to the Guardian, on April 6, 2001 "masked police, backed by soldiers from the Nato-led Stabilisation Force (S-For), seized control of this bank" and the locals reacted. In the Guardian it was written that "in Mostar the bank's spokesman, Milan Sutalo, called the action 'absolutely illegal because this is a private bank and not a public institution. There was no reason for armed people coming to the bank'." According to Vecernji list BiH, although practically nothing significant was found that could be considered a megacrime according to what foreign-owned banks promoted decades later, the bank was destroyed, as well as a number of its companies, and the money of hundreds of companies and savers was blocked.

In 2016 an Italian was convicted of belonging to a group that was extorting money from foreigners who were escorting pilgrims to the Medjugorje Shrine.

Henryk Hoser, the apostolic visitator in Medjugorje, stated in July 2018 that the mafia had penetrated the pilgrimage site, specifically the Neapolitan mafia – the Camorra. According to the Neapolitan newspaper Il Mattino in Naples, magistrates are investigating Camorra ties to a pilgrimage business, three hotels, guide services, and souvenir vendors in Medjugorje.

Effects of the coronavirus to the town of Medjugorje
On March 20, 2020, the Associated Press presented a video of the empty streets in Medjugorje, writing that the locals now "fear international and Europe wide travel restrictions and anxiety about the coronavirus pandemic will lead to a dramatic fall in visitors and damage their livelihoods."

On June 25, 2020, Reuters reported that the travel restrictions had caused a marked decrease in pilgrimages, down from over 100,000 per year, along with a loss in revenue for local businesses.

Croat nationalism
Medjugorje is a town located in Bosnia and Herzegovina, about 20 km (12 mi) east of the border with Croatia in an overwhelmingly ethnically Croatian area. Slavenka Drakulic, a Croatian writer, wrote that in "Croatia, religion means nation and nation means religion." She continues, “in our last census, over 90% of Croatians said they are Catholic. Not necessarily because they are believers but as a way of saying, ‘We are not Serbs.’ So, Medjugorje has a symbolic meaning. It is part of Croatia's identity as a Catholic country.” Professor Chris Merrill noted, "Whether the apparitions actually happened or not, they have become part of the building of a national identity."

The Herzegovina Franciscans favored a separate Croat state over an independent Bosnia and Herzegovina and supported the Croatian Nationalists fighting the Bozniak Muslims. The end of the Bosnian War did not end calls for Croatian autonomy in western Bosnia. Henning Philipp, a spokesperson for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said that the creation of a Croatian entity in Bosnia was not in accordance with the Dayton Agreement that ended the war. In April 2001, the NATO-led Stabilisation Force closed and searched local branches of the Hercegovačka banka ("Herzegovina Bank") of which the Franciscan Province was a shareholder of the bank. This bank handled a large part of the currency transactions in Herzegovina, including international donations intended for Međugorje. This crackdown was based on alleged suspicions of white-collar crime and funneling money to the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ) in order to finance arms purchases for Croatian separatists in Herzegovina. On January 23, 2004, the Bosnian-Croatian politicians Miroslav Prce and Ante Jelavić as well as the businessman Miroslav Rupcić were arrested on suspicion of embezzling deposits from the bank. The pastor of the Medjugorje parish, dismissed the idea of a connection between the shrine and the HDZ.

On the one hand, villagers complained about the international administration of Bosnia. They said that foreigners imposed a federation with Muslims and their powerful armies on us. Arie Farnam, journalist, said that this villager continued, "No one asked us what we think. They banned our elected representatives and put people of their own choosing in our government." Farnam also noted that an alternative view is that the "HDZ's actions is defending its political and economic stronghold around the lucrative Medjugorje site."

Reactions

Skepticism

Two former bishops of the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno, Pavao Žanić and Ratko Perić, have stated that they believe that the apparitions are a hoax. Antonio Gaspari wrote that in the beginning, Zanic was supportive to the young seers, but subsequently changed his mind and became "the main critic and opponent of the Medjugorje apparitions."

Marian expert Donal Foley says that, “sadly, the only rational conclusion about Medjugorje is that it has turned out to be a vast, if captivating, religious illusion”. Foley attributed the popularity of the Medjugorje cult to the fact that Medjugorje may appeal to Catholics confused by changes after the Second Vatican Council.

Critics such as Catholic author E. Michael Jones consider the apparitions to be a hoax, and have stated that the reports of mysterious lights on the hill could easily be explained by illusions produced by atmospheric conditions, or fires that were lit by local youths. According to Chris Maunder in his book Our Lady of the Nations, the author E. Michael Jones is antagonistic towards Medjugorje, is not objective, and "presents a conspiracy theory rather than a thorough analysis."

Raymond Eve, a professor of sociology, in the Skeptical Inquirer has written:
I acknowledge that the teenagers' initial encounters with the Virgin may well have been caused by personal factors. For example, Ivanka, who was the first to perceive a visitation, had just lost her natural mother. The perception of apparitional experiences spread rapidly among her intimate peer group. ...The region's tension and anxiety likely exacerbated this contagion process and the need to believe among the youthful protagonists.

Skeptical investigator Joe Nickell has noted that there are a number of reasons for doubting the authenticity of the apparitions such as contradictions in the stories. For example, on the first sighting, the teenagers claimed they had visited Podbrdo Hill to smoke. They later retracted this, claiming they had gone to the hill to pick flowers. According to Nickell there is also a problem of the "embarrassingly illiterate" nature of the messages.

Supporters

Archbishop Franic of Split, a senior Croatian cleric, in 1985, during the Yugoslav episcopal conference, supported the Medjugorje apparitions and opposed Zanic.

According to Inés San Martín, Hans Urs von Balthasar, said: “The theology of Medjugorje rings true. I am convinced of its truth. Everything concerning Medjugorje is authentic from a Catholic point of view.” Chris Maunder wrote that the theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar condemned Bishop Zanic for "his uncompromising style when making accusations against Medjugorje's supporters."

Chris Maunder noted that Mariologist René Laurentin, who was a priest and theologian, authored books that were positive about Our Lady of Medjugorje, such as: Is the Virgin Mary Appearing in Medjugore?, An Urgent Message for the World given in a Marxist Country (1984), Scientific and Medical Studies on the Apparitions at Medjugorje (1987) and a series of books to update supporters called Derniers Nouvelles (Latest News). Joanne Marie Greer and David O.Moberg have explained that Laurentin and co-author Henry Joyeux, a medical doctor and professor at the University of Montpellier, used the results from scientific tests “carried out on the visionaries, both during their normal life and while in ecstasy” and found these tests “to be a most powerful argument in defense of the apparitions.”

Sister Emmanuel Maillard is also a major supporter of the alleged apparitions of Medjugorje, authoring some of the best-selling books – Medjugorje, Triumph of the Heart, The Hidden Child of Medjugorje, The Beautiful Story of Medjugorje – on the phenomenon and promoting messages from the Virgin Mary through the internet.

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Austria, a close collaborator of Pope Francis, took a personal pilgrimage to Medjugorje in 2009. According to John Thavis, Schönborns pilgrimage was "highly publicized where he spoke favorably about the apparitions and met with at least one of the visionaries."

Locations of alleged visions outside of Medjugorje
Medjugorje is where the alleged visions began in 1981, and are claimed to be still occurring. Some visionaries, when traveling or moved, reported having visions in other locations. Here is a list of some of them:

 Bosnia and Herzegovina: Mostar, Sarajevo, Visoko (Ivan Dragičević in high school),
 Croatia: Zagreb, Varaždin, Dubrovnik Seminary (Ivan Dragičević),
 United States: Boston, Massachusetts, Birmingham, Alabama,
 Italy: Milan, Monza
 Switzerland

Media
Radio Station "Mir" Međugorje started broadcasting on 25 November 1997.

Since January 2006, Informative centre MIR Međugorje publishes Croatian language monthly magazine Glasnik mira ("Peace messenger"), that brings news, stories and testimonies from Međugorje shrine.

Međugorje in art

Comic books
 Miličević, Ivo; Radilović, Julijo; Zelenika, Goranka. Međugorje: Gospa i djeca, Međugorje, 1989.
 Mulligan, James. Medjugorje: The first days, 2013.

Documentaries

In English
 Medjugorje: The Lasting Sign, narrated by Martin Sheen, author: Rob Wallace, 1989.
 Medugorje: Queen of Peace - A Message of Peace by the Karminski Family
 Medugorje (Medjugorje): Caught in the Middle, 1993.

Films
 Gospa by Jakov Sedlar, 1995.

Music
 Tomislav Ivčić, Međugorje songs, Jugoton, 1988, STEREO LSY-10032

See also

 List of Marian apparitions
 Marian apparition
 Our Lady of Fátima
 Our Lady of Lourdes
 Radio Maria
 Visions of Jesus and Mary

Footnotes

References

Books

Journals and magazines

News articles

Websites

External links

 Shrine of Our Lady of Medjugorje – Official Website
 Mary TV – Live streams from Medjugorje

Catholic pilgrimage sites
Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Čitluk, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Marian apparitions
Titles of Mary


The A-1 lifeboat was a powered lifeboat that was made to be dropped by fixed-wing aircraft into water to aid in air-sea rescue operations. The sturdy airborne lifeboat was to be carried by a heavy bomber specially modified to handle the external load of the lifeboat. The A-1 lifeboat was intended to be dropped by parachute during Dumbo missions to land within reach of the survivors of an accident on the ocean, specifically airmen survivors of an emergency water landing.

Design
The first airborne lifeboat was designed in the United Kingdom by Uffa Fox in 1943 and used from February 1943. In the United States, Andrew Higgins evaluated the Fox boat and found it too weak to survive mishap in emergency operations. In November 1943, Higgins assigned engineers from his company to make a sturdier version with two air-cooled engines. Higgins Industries, known for making landing craft (LCVP) and PT boats, produced the A-1 lifeboat, a ,  airborne lifeboat made of laminated mahogany with 20 waterproof internal compartments so that it would not sink if swamped or overturned. Intended to be dropped by modified Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses, it was ready for production in early 1944.

The yellow-painted vessel was supplied with enough food, water and clothing for 12 survivors to last for about 20 days in the ocean. It was provided with sails kept relatively small so that inexpert operators could use them. A "Gibson Girl" survival radio was aboard with an antenna to be lifted up with a kite. Its two engines propelled the boat at ; if just one were used the speed was . The effective cruising range was about  with some  made per day.

Higgins also produced a smaller  version of the A-1 for the US Coast Guard that could be dropped by PBY Catalinas. This version was half the weight of the A-1. Unlike the larger version for the USAAF, the smaller Higgins air dropped lifeboat was designed to rescue only eight or fewer persons. While a November 1945 Popular Mechanics article states it was in USCG service there are few public references to this smaller version of the A-1.

Operations
The Higgins A-1 lifeboat was to be dropped by an SB-17 traveling at an airspeed of  and an altitude of about . Precisely as the aircraft passed directly over the rescue target the boat was to be released. The boat dropped free for a short distance, then static lines attached to the aircraft's bomb bay catwalk drew taut, pulling out three  parachutes of a standard U.S. Army design. Under the open parachutes, the boat took on a 50° bow-downward angle and descended at a rate of  per second, or about . In a manner similar to Fox's airborne lifeboat, upon contact with seawater, rocket-projected lines were automatically sent out  to each side to make it easier for survivors to reach the Higgins lifeboat. The parachutes settled into the water to create a sea anchor holding the boat steady while survivors worked to reach it. Inside the boat, the crew of the aircraft that dropped the lifeboat would have placed a map giving the approximate position of the boat and a recommended compass setting to take in order to facilitate rescue.

The first Higgins airborne lifeboat used in an emergency was dropped on March 31, 1945, in the North Sea, some  offshore of the Dutch island of Schiermonnikoog. In the evening of March 30, a PBY Catalina landed in six-foot (2 m) swells to save the pilot of a downed P-51 Mustang, but one of the Catalina's engines lost its oil in the process, rendering the flying boat unable to take off. Darkness, distance, and poor visibility prevented the Catalina men from making contact with the Mustang pilot who drifted in a raft and was eventually taken prisoner of war. The next morning, a Vickers Warwick located the Catalina and dropped a Fox-designed airborne lifeboat nearby, but after being retrieved the lifeboat began to break up from repeatedly smashing against the Catalina in the increasingly heavy seas.

Instead, the six aircrew lashed three of their own inflatable rubber dinghies together and abandoned the aircraft in ten-foot (3 m) swells. Another Warwick dropped another Fox airborne lifeboat some distance away, but its parachute didn't open and it was destroyed upon striking the water. An SB-17 flying in the ,  breeze dropped its load—Higgins Airborne Lifeboat No. 25—from an altitude of  to land about  from the men. As it hit the water, one of the lifeboat's tethering rocket lines snaked out over the junction of two of the dinghies, making an ideal shot. The six airmen transferred to the Higgins lifeboat where they huddled down and waited for three days in the worst North Sea storm of 1945 before two more Fox airborne boats were dropped with gasoline and supplies on April 3, the lifeboats either swamping or breaking up upon hitting the water. On April 4 in continuing rough seas, the airmen were picked up by two Rescue Motor Launch (RML) boats, and the Higgins A-1 lifeboat, unable to be towed, was intentionally sunk by gunfire.

In the last eight months of World War II, Dumbo operations complemented simultaneous United States Army Air Forces heavy bombing operations against Japanese targets. On any one large-scale bombing mission carried out by Boeing B-29 Superfortresses, at least three submarines were posted along the air route, and Dumbo aircraft sent to patrol the distant waters where they searched the water's surface and listened for emergency radio transmissions from distressed aircraft. At the final bombing mission on August 14, 1945, 9 land-based Dumbos and 21 flying boats covered a surface and sub-surface force of 14 submarines and 5 rescue ships.

Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) operated Dumbo flights along the West Coast in the early 1950s, using the PB-1G, a B-17 variant. Such a flight is depicted briefly in the 1954 film The High and the Mighty. Further Dumbo flights were conducted jointly by the USCG and the U.S. Navy during the Korean War.

The A-1 lifeboat was joined and then succeeded by the A-3 lifeboat from 1947. The A-3 lifeboat was used until the mid-1950s, after which winch equipped helicopters had become commonplace enough to be used to lift survivors instead of dropping a lifeboat to them.

References
Notes

Bibliography
 Crocker, Mel. Black Cats and Dumbos: WW II's Fighting PBYs. Crocker Media Expressions, 2002. .
 Hardwick, Jack; Ed Schnepf. The Making of the Great Aviation Films. General Aviation Series, Volume 2. Challenge Publications, 1989.
 Lloyd, Alwyn T. B-17 Flying Fortress in Detail and Scale, Volume 11: Derivatives, part 2. Fallbrook, California: Aero Publishers, 1983.
 Morison, Samuel Eliot. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II: The struggle for Guadalcanal, August 1942 – February 1943. University of Illinois Press, 2001.
 Ostrom, Thomas P. The United States Coast Guard, 1790 to the present: a history. Elderberry Press, Inc., 2004.
 Strahan, Jerry E. Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats That Won World War II. LSU Press, 1998.

External links
Photographic sequence of a Higgins lifeboat airdrop test in 1951
USCG PB-1G in flight, carrying the A-1 lifeboat

Lifeboats
Rescue equipment
Rescue aviation


Stencil lithography is a novel method of fabricating nanometer scale patterns using nanostencils, stencils (shadow mask) with nanometer size apertures.  It is a resist-less, simple, parallel nanolithography process, and it does not involve any heat or chemical treatment of the substrates (unlike  resist-based techniques).

History
Stencil lithography was first reported in a scientific journal as a micro-structuring technique by S. Gray and P. K. Weimer in 1959. They used long stretched metallic wires as shadow masks during metal deposition.
Various materials can be used as membranes, such as metals, Si, SixNy, and polymers. Today the stencil apertures can be scaled down to sub-micrometer size at full 4" wafer scale. This is called a nanostencil. Nano-scale stencil apertures have been fabricated using laser interference lithography (LIL), electron beam lithography, and focused ion beam lithography.

Processes
Several process are available using stencil lithography: material deposition and etching, as well as implantation of ions. Different stencil requirements are necessary for the various processes, e. g. an extra etch-resistant layer on the backside of the stencil for etching (if the membrane material is sensitive to the etching process) or a conductive layer on the backside of the stencil for ion implantation.

Deposition
The main deposition method used with stencil lithography is physical vapor deposition. This includes thermal and electron beam physical vapor deposition, molecular beam epitaxy, sputtering, and pulsed laser deposition. The more directional the material flux is, the more accurate the pattern is transferred from the stencil to the substrate.

Etching
Reactive ion etching is based on ionized, accelerated particles that etch both chemically and physically the substrate. The stencil in this case is used as a hard mask, protecting the covered regions of the substrate, while allowing the substrate under the stencil apertures to be etched.

Ion implantation
Here the thickness of the membrane has to be greater than the penetration length of the ions in the membrane material. The ions will then implant only under the stencil apertures, into the substrate.

Modes
There are three main modes of operation of stencil lithography: static, quasi-dynamic and dynamic. While all the above described processes have been proven using the static mode (stencil doesn't move relative to substate during material or ion processing), only ion implantation has been shown for the non-static modes (quasi-dynamic).

Static stencil
In the static mode, the stencil is aligned (if necessary) and fixed to a substrate. The stencil-substrate pair is placed in the evaporation/etching/ion implantation machine, and after the processing is done, the stencil is simply removed from the now patterned substrate.

Quasi-dynamic stencil
In the quasi-dynamic mode (or step-and-repeat), the stencil moves relative to the substrate in between depositions, without breaking the vacuum.

Dynamic stencil
In the dynamic mode, the stencil moves relative to the substrate during deposition, allowing the fabrication of patterns with variable height profiles by changing the stencil speed during a constant material deposition rate.  For motion in one-dimension, the deposited material has a height profile  given by the convolution

where  is the time the mask resides at longitudinal position , and  is the constant deposition rate.   represents the height profile that would be produced by a static immobile mask (inclusive of any blurring).  Programmable-height nanostructures as small as 10nm can be produced.

Challenges
Despite it being a versatile technique, there are still several challenges to be addressed by stencil lithography. During deposition through the stencil, material is deposited not only on the substrate through the apertures but also on the stencil backside, including around and inside the apertures. This reduces the effective aperture size by an amount proportional to the deposited material, leading ultimately to aperture clogging.

The accuracy of the pattern transfer from the stencil to the substrate depends on many parameters. The material diffusion on the substrate (as a function of temperature, material type, evaporation angle) and the geometrical setup of the evaporation are the main factors. Both lead to an enlargement of the initial pattern, called blurring.

See also
 Lithography

References

Series in MICROSYSTEMS Vol. 20:
Marc Antonius Friedrich van den Boogaart,
"Stencil lithography: An ancient technique for advanced micro- and nanopatterning", 2006, VIII, 182 p.;

External links
 http://lmis1.epfl.ch/page-34708-en.html
 http://www.advantechus.com/
 http://www.microlitho.com/

Lithography (microfabrication)


Philhelius pedissequus is a species of hoverfly. Prior to 2018, it was known under the genus name Xanthogramma, a junior synonym.

Etymology
The Latin species name pedissequus means that follows on foot, like an attendant.

Distribution and habitat
This uncommon species is present in most of Europe, in Western Siberia, in the Near East and in North Africa. It prefers grassland, open fields close to deciduous forest.

Description

Philhelius pedissequus can reach a length of  and a wing length of 7.25–9.75 mm. These hoverflies have a black body, with two yellow lateral stripes on the thorax, and yellow markings on tergites  two to five. The pairs of tergites 2 are wedge-shaped and considerably wide.

Biology
Flight period last from mid May through September, with a peak at the end of June. The adults feed on different flowers, for example, Ballota nigra, Potentilla erecta and Heracleum sphondylium. Little is known of its larval stages. Larvae have been found underground in nests of the black garden ant (Lasius niger) and yellow meadow ant (Lasius flavus), probably to feed on ant-attended root aphids Forda formicaria and Trama species that they collect.

References

Syrphinae
Diptera of Africa
Diptera of Asia
Diptera of Europe
Insects described in 1776
Articles containing video clips
Taxa named by Moses Harris


Iván Pérez Muñoz (born 29 January 1976) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a forward.

He amassed La Liga totals of 64 games and four goals over eight seasons, representing five clubs including Real Madrid and Deportivo.

Club career
Coming from Real Madrid's youth system, Madrid-born Pérez became a professional in 1994 with the reserves before making his first appearance with the first team the next season. Whilst under contract he had a loan spell with CF Extremadura, leaving in 1997 to sign with Real Betis and later playing briefly in France for FC Girondins de Bordeaux, before joining Deportivo de La Coruña in 1999.

With the Galicians, Pérez was a member of the 1999–2000 championship-winning squad, but only featured in three La Liga matches throughout the campaign, making just five league appearances over the course of three seasons combined. He later had loan stints at CD Numancia and CD Leganés, retiring in 2005 after one year with lowly Girona FC.

International career
In arguably the finest moment of his career, Pérez scored the only goal in the 1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship final, as Spain downed Greece.

Personal life
Pérez was the younger brother of another footballer, Alfonso Pérez. Both began their careers with Real Madrid, and they played together for two seasons at Betis.

Honours
Spain U21
UEFA European Under-21 Championship: 1998

References

External links

1976 births
Living people
Footballers from Madrid
Spanish men's footballers
Men's association football forwards
La Liga players
Segunda División players
Segunda División B players
Real Madrid Castilla footballers
Real Madrid CF players
CF Extremadura footballers
Real Betis players
Deportivo de La Coruña players
CD Numancia players
CD Leganés players
Girona FC players
Ligue 1 players
FC Girondins de Bordeaux players
Spain men's youth international footballers
Spain men's under-21 international footballers
Spain men's under-23 international footballers
Spanish expatriate men's footballers
Expatriate men's footballers in France
Spanish expatriate sportspeople in France


was a seaplane tender (AV) of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.

She was built at Kure Naval Arsenal from 1938 to 1942 and was equipped with two aircraft catapults and facilities for launching, lifting, and carrying up to 12 floatplanes. She also could carry, launch, recover, and support 12 Type 'A' midget submarines and to launch them.

Background
During the 1930s, the Imperial Japanese Navy made increasing use of naval aviation as scouts for its cruiser and destroyer squadrons. Due to restrictions imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty and London Naval Treaty, the number of aircraft carriers was strictly regulated; however, there was no limitation as to seaplane tenders. Nisshin was a follow-on to the purpose-built seaplane tender design begun with the Chitose-class and was ordered by the Imperial Japanese Navy under the 3rd Naval Armaments Supplement Programme of 1937.

Design

Nisshin was designed with two aircraft catapults for launching seaplanes, and cranes for recovering landed aircraft on her aft deck.  She also had two elevators to transport midget submarines from the ship's interior along with 900 tonnes of aviation fuel. As designed, Nisshin carried a complement of 12 Kawanishi E7K Type 94 "Alf" and Nakajima E8N Type 95 "Dave" and Mitsubishi F1M floatplanes which were stored on the top of the ship.

Her armament consisted of six 14 cm/50 3rd Year Type naval guns in three turrets on the foredeck, giving Nisshin nearly the firepower of a light cruiser. Anti-aircraft protection was initially provided by 24 Type 96 25 mm AA guns in eight triple mountings. Nisshin was modified after the start of World War II to carry twelve Type A Kō-hyōteki-class submarines, with a reduction in her original aircraft capacity to twelve aircraft.

Although similar to the preceding seaplane carrier Chitose and , Nisshin was fitted with more powerful 47,000 bhp, two-shafted engines which enabled it to reach speeds of 28 knots. Nisshin had a range of 11,000 nautical miles at 18 knots, and was often used on high speed transport missions to get more equipment and reinforcements to designated areas quickly.

Operational history
Nisshin was laid down on 2 November 1938 and launched on 30 November 1939 at Kure Naval Arsenal. Her completion was delayed by design changes and the onset of the Pacific War and was not commissioned until 27 February 1942.
Shortly after commissioning, on 20 March 1942 Nisshin was assigned to Vice Admiral Teruhisa Komatsu’s IJN 6th Fleet together with the seaplane tender  and the auxiliary cruiser Aikoku Maru, and  participated in training exercises in the Inland Sea, during which time she recovered a miniature submarine which had been lost by Chiyoda.

During the Battle of Midway, Nisshin was part of Main Body of the Japanese fleet. For this operation, she carried twelve Type A Kō-hyōteki-class midget submarines, which were intended to be stationed at Kure Atoll, which was to be seized as a seaplane base for operations against Midway Atoll. The operation was cancelled on the loss of the Japanese aircraft carriers during the Battle of Midway, and Nisshin returned to Hashirajima with her submarines on 14 June without having seen combat.

From September 1942, Nisshin was at Kavieng in the Solomon Islands, where she was assigned to a number of Tokyo Express high speed transport runs to Guadalcanal through the end of November. These missions included the transport of artillery. On 28 September, she narrowly missed an attack by  east of the island of Kokoda. In October, she was damaged during an attack by an American dive bomber north of Tassafaronga. She was unloading at Tassafaronga during a subsequent run on 12 October when the Battle of Cape Esperance began, but was able with withdraw without engaging in combat. and in November she was withdrawn to Truk.

During the first half of 1943, Nisshin continued to be used primarily as a fast transport between the Japanese home islands and Truk and Rabaul.

With the start of the large-scale Allied offensive in June 1943 against Japanese-occupied New Georgia and the Solomon Islands, Nisshin rushed troop reinforcements from Yokosuka to Bougainville Island. Loaded with 630 soldiers, 22 light tanks, ammunition and food supplies, she stopped at Truk and on 22 July, escorted by three destroyers, Nisshin attempted to run Bougainville Strait towards Buin. The convoy was attacked at 13:45 approximately  southwest of Buin by three waves of American bombers,  including 34 Douglas SBD Dauntless and twelve Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers. Nisshin was able to evade the B-24s, working up to 34 knots, but was hit by four  and two  bombs dropped by the dive bombers during the second and third strikes, which exploded her aviation fuel stores and caused many casualties among the crowded soldiers. Severely damaged, Nisshin capsized to starboard and sank some fourteen minutes after the start of the air raid. Of the 1263 on board at the time (633 crewmen and 630 embarked troops), only 178 were rescued by the escorting destroyers, their efforts severely hampered by renewed air attacks.

On 10 September 1943, Nisshin was struck from the navy list.

Citations

References

External links

1939 ships
Ships built by Kure Naval Arsenal
Aircraft carriers sunk by aircraft
Seaplane tenders of the Imperial Japanese Navy
Mine warfare vessels of the Imperial Japanese Navy
Auxiliary ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy
World War II shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean
Maritime incidents in July 1943
Ships sunk by US aircraft


Xylota sylvarum is a common Palearctic species of hoverfly.

Description
External images
For terms see Morphology of Diptera
Wing length 9–12 mm. Thorax blackish. Four anterior legs partly yellow. Abdomen black with golden patches (adpressed golden hair). The male genitalia are figured by Hippa (1968). The larva is illustrated in colour by Rotheray (1994) ).
See references for determination.

Distribution
Palearctic Fennoscandia South to Iberia. Ireland eastwards through North Europe on to Siberia and the Pacific coast.

Biology
Old woodland species running on the foliage of bushes and shrubs and on tree stumps. The larvae feed in damp, fungus-ridden decaying wood of Abies, Fagus and Quercus trunks and stumps, usually beneath the bark. The major habitat may be decaying tree roots...

References

Diptera of Europe
Milesiini
Insects described in 1758
Articles containing video clips
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus


Loïc Duvart Nestor (born 20 May 1989) is a Guadeloupean professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Grenoble Foot 38.

Club career
Born in Haguenau, France, Nestor joined the youth team of Le Havre in 2004, and turned professional in 2007, making his Ligue 2 debut on 6 November 2007 against CS Sedan.

International career
Nestor made one appearance for the France under-21 team in 2008.

Career statistics
Scores and results list Guadeloupe's goal tally first.

Honours
Le Havre
 Ligue 2: 2008

References

External links

1989 births
Living people
People from Haguenau
Footballers from Bas-Rhin
Guadeloupean men's footballers
Guadeloupe men's international footballers
French men's footballers
France men's under-21 international footballers
French people of Guadeloupean descent
Men's association football defenders
Le Havre AC players
LB Châteauroux players
Valenciennes FC players
Grenoble Foot 38 players
Ligue 1 players
Ligue 2 players
Championnat National 2 players
Championnat National 3 players


Santall may refer to three English cricketers of the same family:

John Santall (1907–1986), Worcestershire all-rounder
Reg Santall (1903–1950), Warwickshire batsman
Sydney Santall (1873–1957), Warwickshire bowler, father of Reg and John


Aleksandr Maseikov (Sometimes listed as Aleksandr Maseykov, , born July 26, 1971), is a Soviet-born Belarusian sprint canoeist who competed from the early 1990s to the early 2000s. He was born in Mogilev and was affiliated with Dynamo Mogilev. Competing in three Summer Olympics, he won a gold in the C-2 500 m event at Barcelona in 1992 representing the Unified Team.

Maseikov also won three medals at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships with two golds (C-2 200 m: 1994, C-4 200 m: 1997) and one silver (C-4 200 m: 1998).

References

Biography of ALeksandr Maseikov

1971 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Mogilev
Belarusian male canoeists
Canoeists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Canoeists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Canoeists at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Olympic canoeists for Belarus
Olympic canoeists for the Unified Team
Soviet male canoeists
Olympic medalists in canoeing
ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships medalists in Canadian
Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medalists for the Unified Team
Dynamo Sports Club sportspeople


Lexington class could refer to two classes of ships of the U.S. Navy:

  - a class of six battlecruisers designed during World War I, they were being constructed when the Washington Naval Treaty forced the cancellation of the class. The two that were the most advanced in their construction became aircraft carriers, (see below) while the other four were scrapped.
  - the conversion of two of the battlecruisers to aircraft carriers. These ships,  and , served in the U.S. Navy until Lexington was sunk during the Battle of the Coral Sea and Saratoga was used as a target ship for the Bikini atomic experiments (Operation Crossroads).


Benjamin Police (born 19 May 1988) is a French professional footballer who plays for Gonfreville, as a defender. He appeared in Ligue 1 for Le Havre.

References

1988 births
Living people
French men's footballers
Footballers from Rouen
Le Havre AC players
ESM Gonfreville players
Ligue 2 players
Ligue 1 players
Championnat National players
Men's association football defenders


See tribal king for the social rank.

Tribal King is a French duet composed of David (born April 2, 1979 in Mulhouse, France) and Nony (born June 19, 1984 in Müllheim, West Germany). Both are from Mulhouse, then Belfort. Their music is a mixture of pop / R&B and reggae dancehall.

Biography
The group was established in August 2005 during a party in a club in Altkirch (Haut-Rhin).

The first single of the band was "Façon Sex", which was atop of the singles chart for five weeks during 2006 summer in France. The first album, entitled Welcome, was released on October 2, 2006.

The group participated in the show Star Academy, broadcast on TF1 on September 29, 2006.

Back in the 2008 summer, the band released the single "Hands Up", sponsored by Fun Radio. A new album, Level 2 is currently recorded.

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

Musical groups from Grand Est
Musical groups established in 2005
Contemporary R&B duos
French musical duos
Male musical duos


Dmitri Dovgalenok (Sometimes listed as Dmitry Dovgalenok, born 14 December 1971), is a Soviet-born Belarusian sprint canoeist who competed from the early 1990s to the early 2000s (decade). He was born in Minsk. Competing in two Summer Olympics, he won a gold in the C-2 500 m event at Barcelona in 1992 representing the Unified Team.

Dovgalenok also won a gold medal in the C-2 200 m event at the 1994 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Mexico City.

References

1971 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Minsk
Belarusian male canoeists
Canoeists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Canoeists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Olympic canoeists for Belarus
Olympic canoeists for the Unified Team
Soviet male canoeists
Olympic medalists in canoeing
ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships medalists in Canadian

Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medalists for the Unified Team


Helophilus trivittatus is a species of Palearctic hoverfly.

Etymology
The scientific genus name is composed of the parts helos (ἕλος, gr.), meaning "marsh" and philos (φίλος, gr.) meaning "friend". The species name is composed by "tri" (lat.), meaning "three" and "vitta" (lat.) meaning "band". This name refer to the preference of these insects for moist areas and to the fact that they carry three stripes on the breast shield.

Description
For terms see Morphology of Diptera

Helophilus trivittatus has a wing length of . The eyes are separated in both sexes, in the male a little less than in the female. The antennae are black, Face shows a wide yellow longitudinal stripe, with at most a central reddish-brown stripe. On the thorax four narrow pale yellow stripes alternate with three larger dark brown stripes. The drawing of the flattened abdomen is reminiscent of a wasp.

The drawing of the third and fourth segments of the abdomen is different in the two sexes. In the male, only the third segment carries a pale yellow to gray arc line. In the female, such a curve is found on the fourth and the fifth tergite. Tergites 2 and 3 have pale lemon yellow spots, while tergite 4 has white to grey spots. In the females tergite 3 yellow spots touch the front margin. The larva is illustrated by Hartley (1961)

See references for determination.

Distribution
This species is present in most of Europe and in the eastern Palearctic realm. It is widespread from Fennoscandia south to the Mediterranean Basin, and from Ireland east through Europe, Siberia, and the Russian Far East to the Pacific. it is also present in Iran and Afghanistan. It has been observed migrating in Sweden.

Habitat
These hoverflies inhabit wetland, river margins, seasonally flooded grassland and salt-marsh. They are anthropophilic in southern Europe, where it frequents irrigation ditches in farmland.

Biology
The flight period of this species is from May to October. Adults feed on various flowers, including umbellifers, yellow composites, Armeria, Aster, Cakile, Centaurea, Chrysanthemum, Cirsium, Crataegus, Chamaenerion angustifolium, Eryngium, Eupatorium, Euphorbia, Ligustrum, Lychnis, Lythrum, Mentha, Menyanthes, Origanum, Plumbago, Polygonum persicaria, Potentilla, Ranunculus, Rubus fruticosus, Salix and Sorbus.
The larva is a detritivore associated with decaying rhizomes of Typha latifolia and with beds of Glyceria maxima.

References

Diptera of Europe
Eristalini
Insects described in 1805
Articles containing video clips
Taxa named by Johan Christian Fabricius


Tell Me on a Sunday was the first solo album released by Marti Webb.

All tracks were written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black and told the story of an English girl who has emigrated to the United States and embarks on a succession of romances. The music later formed the first half of a stage show called Song and Dance, in which Webb also starred.

Background

As well as composing the piece, Lloyd Webber also arranged and produced the album. Released in 1980, having been recorded in the latter part of 1979, it was one of his first pieces of work to be published by his own Really Useful Company, which he had formed three years earlier.

The musicians were mainly those that had been involved with the Variations album. American musical theatre actress Elaine Stritch performed a cameo role as an answering service attendee on the track "Capped Teeth and Caesar Salad".

The first single to be released, "Take That Look Off Your Face" reached No.3 in the UK chart in February 1980, while the title track was a minor hit some months later. The album itself was one of the biggest selling albums of the year, when it reached No.2, spending 23 weeks on the chart - eight of them in the top 10. The album was re-issued on compact disc in 1993.

The songs on the album were re-recorded live in 1982 and released as the double album cast recording of Song and Dance with some additional material.

Track listing

Side One
 "Take That Look Off Your Face"
 "Let Me Finish"
 "It's Not the End of the World (If I Lose Him)"
 "Letter Home to England"
 "Sheldon Bloom"
 "Capped Teeth and Caesar Salad"
 "You Made Me Think You Were In Love"
 "It's Not the End of the World (If He's Younger)"
 "Second Letter Home"

Side Two
 "Come Back With the Same Look In Your Eyes"
 "Let's Talk About You"
 "Take That Look Off Your Face (Reprise)"
 "Tell Me on a Sunday"
 "It's Not the End of the World (If He's Married)"
 "I'm Very You, You're Very Me"
 "Nothing Like You've Ever Known"
 "Let Me Finish (Reprise)"

Personnel

Musicians
Marti Webb - lead and backing vocals
Rod Argent - keyboards
Jon Hiseman - drums
Ricky Hitchcock, Paul Keogh - guitar
Paul Jones - harmonica
Julian Lloyd Webber - cello
John Mole - bass
Morris Pert - percussion
Barbara Thompson - flute, saxophone

Lloyd Webber re-assembled many of the musicians who had contributed to his earlier Variations album, for which he arranged Paganini's caprice for his brother Julian Lloyd Webber's cello, including jazz multi-instrumentalist Barbara Thompson and her husband, drummer Jon Hiseman. Gary Moore engineered the 1987 digital transfer for the album's first release on compact disc.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Harry Rabinowitz, which had earlier played on Lloyd Webber's concept album of Evita, also performed on the tracks "Tell Me on a Sunday" and "It's Not the End of the World (If He's Married)".

Production
Conductors - David Caddick and Paul Maguire
Engineers - David Hamilton Smith, Martyn Webster, Nigel Green and Dave Harris

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

1980 debut albums
Polydor Records albums
Albums produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Marti Webb albums


Kristin Korb is an American jazz double bassist and vocalist.

Biography

Korb studied at Eastern Montana College and the University of California, San Diego. She also studied with Ray Brown, with whom she made her recording debut, released in 1996.

Since moving to Los Angeles in 2002, she has performed across North America. She taught at Azuza Pacific and University Southern California, where she was coordinator of vocal jazz studies. After getting married in July 2011 to a Dane, Morten Stove, co-founder of DPA Microphones, she moved to Copenhagen, Denmark.

She has performed and recorded with jazz artists such as Llew Matthews, Kim Richmond, Steve Barnes, Ray Brown, Jeff Hamilton, Bruce Forman, Sheila Jordan, Jan Lundgren, Alex Riel, Harry Allen, Aaron Serfaty, Otmaro Ruíz, Mary Fettig, Karl-Martin Almqvist, Mathias Heise and Jacob Fischer. She plays in a Trio with Snorre Kirk on drums and Magnus Hjorth on piano.

Discography
 Introducing Kristin Korb with Ray Brown (Telarc, 1996)
 Where You'll Find Me (Double K Music, 2001)
 Why Can't You Behave (Double K Music, 2006)
 Get Happy with Todd Johnson (Grace Base, 2006)
 In the Meantime (Double K Music, 2009)
 What's Your Story (Double K Music, 2013)
 Finding Home (Double K Music, 2014)
 That Time of Year (Storyville, 2018)
 What If? / Why Not? (Double K Music, 2021)

References

External links
 Official site
 Interview with Kristin Korb at All About Jazz
 Kristin Korb in San Diego January 2011, All About Jazz
 Jazz Times review of What's Your Story, 2013
 "Meet Kristin Korb", Bass Musician

Living people
University of California, San Diego alumni
University of Southern California faculty
American jazz double-bassists
American women jazz singers
American jazz singers
21st-century double-bassists
Year of birth missing (living people)
American women academics
21st-century American women


Blindpassasjer (Norwegian: Stowaway, literally "blind passenger"; English title: Marco Polo) was a Norwegian science fiction television series from 1978. It aired 3 episodes.

In the show, a spaceship has 5 crew members. A biological robot, or 'Biomat', kills one of the crew members and replaces him, but the identity of the victim is unknown.

Blindpassasjer is noteworthy for being the first science fiction series to air on Norwegian television. It has a plot similar to Ridley Scott's film 'Alien' that came to cinemas in 1979.

References

External links

 Review at Nordic Fantasy

1970s science fiction television series
Norwegian television series


Helophilus hybridus is a hoverfly.
It is a  Palearctic species.

Description
For terms see Morphology of Diptera

Wing length 8·5-11·25 mm. Femorae 3 top 1/4 or less yellow. Tibiae 3 pale on basal 1/4 or less. Males tergite 2 large yellow spotsreach the hind margin over their full width. The larva is illustrated by Hartley (1961). See references for determination

Distribution
Palearctic Fennoscandia South to North France. Ireland East through North Europe and Central Europe (including the Alps) East into Russia and on through the Russian Far East and Siberia to the Pacific coast. Mongolia. Nearctic from Alaska to Nova Scotia and South to Utah.

Biology
Habitat: wetlands non-eutrophic pools in fen, poor fen, deciduous woodland and dune slacks, cutover valley bog, fen carr, taiga. Flowers visited include white umbellifers, Calluna vulgaris, Cirsium, Convolvulus, Crataegus, Echium, Euphorbia, Limonium, Lycopus, Mentha aquatica, Menyanthes, Narthecium, Parnassia palustris, Plantago, Pulicaria, Rosa, Rubus, Salix repens, Salix, Senecio, Sorbus, Succisa, Taraxacum, Valeriana.
The flight period is early May to early September.

References

External links

 External images

Diptera of Europe
Eristalini
Insects described in 1846
Articles containing video clips
Taxa named by Hermann Loew
Hoverflies of North America


Julius Brach (9 January 1881, Brno – 4 July 1938, Vyškov, Moravia) was a Czech chess master.

In the beginning of his career, he won at Brno 1899, took 3rd at Osyky u Lomnice, took 2nd at Brno 1901, and took 3rd at Brno 1905. He tied for 5-6th at Nuremberg 1906 (the 15th DSB Congress, Hauptturnier A, Savielly Tartakower won), and shared 2nd at Brno 1907 (the 2nd Czech Chess Championship, František Treybal won).

He won at Brno 1908, tied for 8-9th at Prague 1908 (B tournament, Karel Treybal won), took 2nd at Brno 1909, and took 6th at Prague 1909 (the 3rd CZE-ch, Oldřich Duras won). In 1909, he played three matches in Brno; drew with Karel Hromádka (3 : 3), beat A. Perna (4 : 0), and defeated M. Gargulak (2.5 : 0.5). He took 2nd at Brno 1911, tied for 5-7th at Breslau 1912 (the 18th DSB Congress, Hauptturnier B, Paul Krüger), won at Brno 1913, and won in the Mannheim 1914 chess tournament (the 19th DSB Congress, Hauptturnier B).

During World War I, he shared 3rd at Brünn (Brno) 1916, won at Brno 1917, and tied for 9-11th at Kaschau (Košice) 1918 (Richard Réti won). After the war, he won at Brno 1920, tied for 8-9th at Brno 1921 (the 2nd Czechoslovak Chess Championship, Hromádka won), took 3rd at Pistyan (Piešťany) 1922 (B tournament, Endre Steiner won), tied for 9-11th at Znojmo 1927 (Karel Opočenský won), and took 8th at Olomouc 1930 (Karl Gilg won).

References

1881 births
1938 deaths
Czech chess players
Sportspeople from Brno
Chess players from Austria-Hungary
Czechoslovak chess players


Helophilus affinis is a European species of hoverfly.

References

Diptera of Europe
Eristalini
Insects described in 1844
Taxa named by Peter Fredrik Wahlberg