SAINT JAMES CHURCH IN MEĐUGORJE

This double-steepled Catholic church (Crkva Svetog Jakova) belongs to the Franciscan order. Devoid of charm, it is the center of the "shrine" of the Queen of Peace (not recognized by the Vatican) where visitors from all over the world participating in the Međugorje pilgrimage gather every day. It was erected from 1934 and completed in the 1980s, on the site of a previous church (1897) that suffered from design problems. Since this parish church is too small to accommodate all the pilgrims in the summer, a covered outdoor altar was built at the chevet in 1989, with a park and rows of benches in an arc that can accommodate about 5,000 people at a time. All around are chapels, wooded areas and sometimes tents where pilgrims gather by language and/or nationality under the guidance of monks, nuns and priests. Between July and August, several masses are celebrated there each day, but it is the evening service that attracts the most people.

Statues, radio and television. The "sanctuary" is punctuated by various statues. The most famous is that of the Virgin, known as the "Queen of Peace", installed on the church square in 1987. It is a white stone sculpture of no artistic interest, but there are several replicas throughout the world, starting with the one located on the "Hill of Apparitions". Towards the altar, near the information center "Mir" ("peace"), there is a not very successful statue of Leopold Mandić (1866-1942), a Croatian monk canonized in 1982. To the southwest of the "sanctuary," between the trees and at the end of a Way of the Cross stands an impressive resurrected Christ, a large bronze made in 1998 by Slovenian sculptor Andrej Ajdič (b. 1937). Near this statue, a large building houses the studios of Radio Mir, which broadcasts religious news from Međugorje, especially new "apparitions" of the Virgin. Further north, near the entrance to the church, the MaryTV studios do the same in the form of videos posted on the Internet. Finally, beyond the church square and the statue of the "Queen of Peace" opens the street "of Pope John Paul II" (Pope Ivana Pavla II) around which are concentrated dozens of hotels, restaurants and souvenir stores, some of which belong to the six "witnesses" of Međugorje.