[There is a seemingly never-ending supply of information on the Internet regarding alleged miracles of one kind or another associated with the phenomenon that is Medjugorje. The following are some extracts from a 1988 article by Monte Leach entitled Manifestations from Medjugorje, only slightly edited by me]:
Eighteen members of a Catholic prayer community in Northern California say that their rosary beads changed from a silver to gold colour both during and after a recent prayer retreat. The eighteen believe the changes are miracles performed by the Virgin Mary as part of her manifestation in Medjugorje…Changes in rosary beads have been reported in other parts of the U.S. and around the world, including some 50 parishioners in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, who say their beads changed form silver to a gold colour after a member of their congregation returned from Medjugorje last year.
Like Somers, one of the Northern California Catholics who attended the prayer retreat, says she was reciting the prayer of the rosary when her beads changed colour. “I looked at the rosary in my hand and it was glowing,” Somers says. She has had rosary beads for 40 years, she says, and has never seen any of them change colour the way hers did that day at the retreat. In other parts of the U.S., metallurgists have examined beads that people claim have changed colour. The metallurgists have found the rosaries not to be gold, but have yet to determine their actual metallic composition.
Phenomena of all types have been reported at Medjugorje. Physical healings are common; the cross on one of the mountains lights up, and a woman’s figure is seen on the cross; the word MIR, the Croatian and Russian word for peace, has been written across the sky in bright lights, and seen by thousands of people; rosary beads in Medjugorje change from silver to gold.
Mary Ann Serrano actually witnessed one of the more commonly reported miracles at Medjugorje. “I had just come out of Mass. The sun was over Mount Krisevac, a hill where people pray every day and where Mary has actually appeared. All of a sudden I saw a crowd of people with the faces in awe. And gold light on their faces. I turned and looked and the sun was spinning across the sky, with great rainbows of light coming out of it. Rainbows of light and most prominently a cross. You could stare straight into the sun and you didn’t have to blink. It didn’t hurt your eyes. And then all of a sudden it came back and was a normal sun again.”
