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Medjugorje, Bosnia: Does Mary Integrate Or Disintegrate?, Kathryn Tegart Taylor

Master of Arts in Religious Studies (M.A.R.S. Theses)

The religious ritual of pilgrimage offers insight into the various ways in which sacred space is understood. Thinkers such as Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Mircea Eliade offer several understandings of religion and interpretations of the role of ritual and the sacred. By investigating the specific historical and cultural context of a much visited, contemporary pilgrimage site of Medjugorje, Bosnia, it becomes clear that there is a striking difference here between the popular and official understanding of the space. A study of Marian apparitional pilgrimages within the Roman Catholic tradition provides context for the on-going and tumultuous debate within both …