An investigation has been launched as a statue of Our Lady and an outdoor altar were found desecrated in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, on the evening of July 27 to 28.

The statue was found with the Virgin Mary’s hands and face painted black, with graffiti reading “Devil in a skirt” written in English. A nearby banner listed the names of the Medjugorje seers and had written in Polish: “They are fraudsters, I have proof”. On a nearby plaque had been graffitied to read: “Evil”. The recently renovated outdoor altar of the Church of St James the Greater had been set on fire, which damaged the flooring, seating and tarpaulin used for outdoor celebrations of Mass.

It is believed that both sites were targeted at around 4am on July 28, with a number of pilgrims congregating to the sites to pray following the desecration. Local authorities have launched an investigation into the incident and are pursuing multiple leads. It has been reported that a man was arrested following the vandalism.

The parish office of Medjugorje in a July 28 statement noted its “great sadness” at the incident, but stated that the shrine remains open to all pilgrims and that cleaning is under way.

The statement read: “We thank all those who, with their work and selfless help, participate in ensuring that the sanctuary remains a place of encounter with God, a place of peace, and a place where the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, is honoured.

“In a special way, we invite all faithful to respond to this event in the way that Our Lady has been teaching us for over 40 years in Medjugorje: with prayer, fasting, and forgiveness. We pray for the conversion of the hearts of those who committed this act, that the Lord may touch them with His grace and lead them on the path of goodness. We also pray for peace in the hearts of all people.

“Our Lady constantly invites us to be carriers of peace. May this event encourage us to take her invitation even more seriously: not to return evil for evil, but to witness love, forgiveness, and hope with our lives.”

The vandalism occurred just a few days before the 2026 Medjugorje Youth Festival, which will take place from August 1 to August 6. It is believed that more than one million people visit Medjugorje each year.

The town gained prominence as a pilgrimage site in 1981 when it was reported that Our Lady appeared regularly to children in Medjugorje. Since then, the veracity of the apparitions has been debated, though in 2019 Pope Francis formally allowed pilgrimages to the site on the condition that the reported apparitions were not presented as being approved by the Church.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) approved the “spiritual experience connected with Medjugorje” as a place of pilgrimage in September 2024. In its document, it stated that the “uniqueness of the place lies in the large number of such fruits: abundant conversions, a frequent return to the sacraments”, citing vocations to priestly, Religious, and married life.

It read: “It should be noted that such experiences occur above all in the context of pilgrimages to the places associated with the original events rather than in meetings with the ‘visionaries’ to be present for the alleged apparitions.”

It stated that “while this does not imply a declaration of the supernatural character of the phenomenon in question – and recalling that the faithful are not obliged to believe in it – the Nihil obstat indicates that the faithful can receive a positive encouragement for their Christian life through this spiritual proposal, and it authorises public acts of devotion.”

“Such a determination is possible insofar as many positive fruits have been noted in the midst of a spiritual experience, while negative and dangerous effects have not spread among the People of God.”