date: 05.09.2016.
This Sunday, September 11, is the day when the parish of Medjugorje celebrates the feast of Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Holy Masses in the parish church of St. James are scheduled at 7 a.m.,8 a.m.12 p.m. and 6 p.m. Solemn Holy Mass on Cross Mountain is at 11 a.m. Holy Masses will not be held in the other churches belonging to the parish.
Medjugorje parish celebrates this Feast every first Sunday after the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the honour of Holy Year of Redemption, 1933/1934, at the initiative of their parish priest in those days, despite great poverty, parishioners of Medjugorje decided to build huge cross on the hill looking over Medjugorje. Relics of the true cross on which Jesus was crucified that they received from Rome were placed inside this concrete cross. First Holy Mass was celebrated on March 16, 1934, and the name of hill was changed from Sipovac to Krizevac on that day. Fr. Alojzije Misic, bishop in those days, already in September made decree that Holy Mass of the Feast of Exaltation of the Holy Cross in exceptionally celebrated in Medjugorje on the first Sunday after the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
This was an ordinary feast only for the parishioners and their friends from the local parishes, prior to the apparitions of Our Lady in 1981, and then it became the feast for all of the pilgrims from all over the world.
