Stained Dress of Mary Confession Story – Međugorje

“During one of these extraordinary visitations, Our Lady interacted with the villagers in a surprisingly intimate way. On August 2, 1981, she appeared at the regular time and asked us to await her again that evening. My memories of this and other early apparitions are foggy, but Marija reported that Our Lady said, “All of you together go to the meadow at Gumno. A great struggle is about to unfold—a struggle between my Son and Satan. Human souls are at stake.” Later that evening, we went to the area known as Gumno, near my uncle’s house. In our language, the word gumno means threshing floor—a large, circular area of hard ground where farmers separated grain by having cows or horses walk in circles over it. In the Bible, John the Baptist used the same word when he figuratively described Jesus’ mission as a harvest of souls: “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” About forty local people joined us at Gumno. Crickets chirped loudly and mosquitos flitted around our faces as we kneeled in the red clay. We prayed and waited, and suddenly Our Lady appeared in front of us. Some of the people had asked us if they could touch Our Lady, and when we presented their request, she said that whoever wanted to could approach her. One by one, we took their hands and guided them to touch Our Lady’s dress. The experience was strange for us visionaries—it was difficult to comprehend that only we could see Our Lady. From our perspective, guiding people to touch her was like leading the blind. Their reactions were lovely, especially the children. It seemed that most felt something. A few reported a sensation like “electricity” and others were overcome with emotion. But as more people touched Our Lady, I noticed black spots forming on her dress, and the spots congealed into a large, coal-colored stain. I cried at the sight of it. “Her dress!” yelled Marija, also crying. The stains, said Our Lady, represented sins that had never been confessed. She suddenly vanished. After praying for a while, we stood in the darkness and told the people what we saw. They were nearly as upset as we were. Someone suggested that everyone there should go to confession, and the next day repentant villagers inundated the priests. My cousin, Vlado, just a little boy, was among those who touched Our Lady’s dress. When I told him about the stains, he exclaimed, “But I washed my hands, Mirjana! They were clean! I promise!” Anytime I saw him after that, I smiled and said, “Have you washed your hands lately, Vlado?” (81-3).