A Special Apparition, A Special Message

At her regular daily apparition with Our Lady at 5:40 p.m., on December 31, 2000, Our Lady asked Marija to go up Apparition Mountain for a second apparition at 10:30 p.m. that night. This was a significant request in that the time of the apparition would be in the last hours of the year 2000, before beginning the New Year. The Great Jubilee Year would be coming to an end on the Feast of the Epiphany less than a week away. Our Lady appeared to Marija with five angels that night, which also signified the importance of this apparition. She then gave a message that unnerved everyone.

“My dear children, now that when satan is unchained, I desire you to be consecrated to My Heart and the Heart of My Son Jesus. I bless you with my Motherly blessing.”

The expectation of everyone, especially with the drawing close of the Jubilee Year, was that satan’s time was coming to an end. Those who knew that Our Lady had told Mirjana that satan was given 100 years to bring trials to the Church, and also of Pope Leo XIII’s vision on October 13, 1884, in which the same was revealed to him, believed that the century was likely from the years 1900 to 2000. But hearing Our Lady’s words and then seeing them manifest soon after the beginning of the new millennium, many came to the conclusion that the century of satan had to have started on a different date, in a different year. A Friend of Medjugorje wrote of the January 1, 2001 apparition:

“Our Lady could have said the above message at the 5:40 p.m. apparition. However, She chose to deliver it in a special circumstance. We, therefore, believe special emphasis should be placed on what Our Lady said, not by our interpretation, but by Her actions. But what does it mean, on the first day of the millennium, when Our Lady said:

‘…now that when satan is unchained…’

“It seems satan has been loose already in society. But did not God restrict satan in regard to Job, saying to satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand upon his person.’ The prince of darkness, satan, though given great liberty, was still held bound in regard to Job. Though society is plagued with evil, satan still is restricted. If he were completely freed, what sort of havoc would be cast upon society? Indeed, Our Lady says after the statement of ‘now that when satan is unchained, I want you to be consecrated to My Heart and the Heart of My Son.’ This, evidently by Her words, is our protection, perhaps the only chains that he will be binded by. The two statements must be related; the first stating he is unchained, the other stating what to do in regard to him being unchained.”