date: 23.01.2015.
This year we will celebrate 46 years ever since the solemn blessing of Medjugorje parish church of St. James. After the parish was established in 1892, the first parish church, beautiful and spacious at the time, was completed in 1897. Due to the unstable grounds it was built on, the walls began to crack and the building started to sink, so immediately after the World War I, the parish began to consider the construction of the new church. The works lasted from1934 until January 19, 1969, when the church was blessed. The church of St. James is today the centre of the sacramental and prayer life, not just for the parishioners but for the pilgrims from all over the world. The historian Dr. Fr. Robert Jolić said for the programme of radio Mir Medjugorje that even Glas Koncila, famous Croatian Catholic magazine wrote about that: „Everything was solemn and really superb and I believe it was the event that deserved all those praises. That event, the blessing, was the end of one long journey that had started more than thirty years before. But in 1969, only the rough construction works were completed and many more works followed even afterwards. Our Franciscans, Fr. Stanko Vasilj and Fr. Leonard Oreč had sent one report to Glas Koncila magazine that was published in the beginning of February 1969, and published in our magazine Oasis of Peace in 2012. There were many people and the Provincial was also invited. They also read the list of donators for the church.”- said Dr. Fr. Robert Jolić.
