In the mailbag, a peculiarity. Perhaps someone out there will explain it.
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It’s intriguing because it involves what looked a bit like flickers of fires or some sort of luminosity on Apparition Hill (or Mount Podbrdo) in Medjugorje, where many signs are seen (including at times a strange vaporous smoke, recalling Sinai) and where a fire was seen on the hillside by villagers on October 28, 1981—at the very spot where Mary first appeared in 1981 (an apparition formally acknowledged as authentic by a Vatican commission)—but where there was no sign of actual fire—no charred ground, no scorched brambles—when a guard went to investigate. (“The fire, seen by the faithful, was of a supernatural character,” the Virgin told seers the day after. “It is one of the signs, a forerunner of the great sign.”)
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Wrote Bernie FitzMaurice on January 16: “Have you heard anything about a fire on Mount Podbrdo in Medjugorje on Monday (1/13/25) morning? I have insomnia and often wake up in the middle of the night. When I do I usually get on my computer for a few minutes. One of the things I do is go to the webcams for Medjugorje.
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“Last Sunday night about 3:30 a.m. (9:30 a.m. Medjugorje time), I was looking at the webcams. I do this often, so I notice when something is different.
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“On the webcam for St. James Church, Mt. Podbrdo is seen in the distance. I often see fog on the hill. This time, it looked like smoke. I could see the clouds of smoke billowing upward.
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“Even from that distance the smoke was moving quite fast upward. I went to the webcam for the Blue Cross [another spot on the hill). There was a haze in the air that could have been smoke or fog. I went to the webcam for the statue of our Blessed Mother and there was the same haze, only heavier.
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“On the ground around the statue and its platform, it looked like a ring of fire. The was like a ring of a thousand candles flickering, and farther away, before the ring, there were more flames flickering.
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“I went to the webcam for the trail going up the hill. There was one man who approached the trail , and was looking up the trail, but he didn’t go up. There was the same haze in the air.
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“I went to the webcam for Cross Mountain, and the Cross on top looked normal. I went to the webcam for the trail going up Cross Mountain, and at the entrance were three men. It looked like one was wearing a dark robe and two were white robes. They were looking up the trail when two huge dogs came from around the back of the building. One dog started up the trail and the other approached the men. They didn’t pet the dog but it came and stood beside them. I was surprised at how big it was. His head was at the height of the men’s chest. I thought that maybe it was a big goat or something because it seemed so much bigger than a dog.
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“After a minute the men went up the trail and the dog went with them. I watched them until they disappeared up the trail. I went back to the webcam for St. James Church. The smoke was still rising over the hill, but then the camera went out. I went back to the Blue Cross camera, which looked normal–no haze. Then I went back to the statue’s camera, and the ring of fire was gone; there was just a little haze and the brown rocks on the ground around the statue.
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“Later that day I looked at the webcams again. It was full daylight then locally. I didn’t see any sign of a fire anywhere. Nothing looked burnt. I have been looking at these webcams for a few years now at all seasons and times of the day. I have never seen this before. Have you heard of any fire there on the hill?”
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A simple artifact of the lens? Something natural biiolumiscent? A reflection?
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Bernie wrote on February 6, “I saw it again last night. This time I thought to take pictures of it (attached). I got some video and screenshots from my computer. There were no billowing clouds of smoke this time, just some haze or fog. The view from a distance that shows St. James Church, shows a sort of white streak on the mountain. The other web cams all seemed normal. Do you think it might be some effect from the camera?”
Don’t know, Bernie, but we’ll keep eyes peeled and ears to the rail.
