The Međugorje Miracle
anecdote · Slovenian/Yugoslav ·
retold in 4 talks
Slovene communists exploited a Virgin Mary apparition for tourism, but attacked a local priest for calling it superstition, arguing that proclaiming it a miracle was his 'economic duty' to the state.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 4
“duty economic to help is to proclaim this is a miracle”
“communists were furious this is a unique document. In the communist official paper they attacked this priest for non-patriotic behavior”
“fuck you, your duty economic to help is to proclaim this is a miracle. who are you to play some atheist games here”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 2 jobsuses
imminent reversal
×2
ideology reproduced by not taking itself seriously
×1
Its cast and sources
populated by
Edward Norton2Naomi Wolf2Ivan Illich1Günter Anders1Leopold von Sacher-Masoch1Boileau-Narcejac1A. J. Ayer1Grace Kelly1
alongside works
Every retelling 4
2:34 Žižek and Dupuy: Religion, Secularism, and Political Belonging - Nov. 1, 2014 Interview2014-11-01 · 1:05:43
Slovene communists exploited a Virgin Mary apparition for tourism, but attacked a local priest for calling it superstition, arguing that proclaiming it a miracle was his 'economic duty' to the state., illustrating imminent reversal,ideology
Slovene communists promote a fake miracle near Ljubljana for economic gain, then attack the local priest for calling it superstition, highlighting the inconsistent, business-oriented nature of late socialism., illustrating ideology
In Bosnia, hard-line communists failed to exploit the Virgin Mary apparition commercially; Slovenian business-minded communists planned to build a hotel around a local miracle, only to be embarrassed when a local priest declared it superstition, whereupon the communist weekly attacked the priest for unpatriotic behavior., illustrating collision of historical epochs,sacred and political reversal,immanent reversal
Contrasting Croatia’s Medjugorje, where the party ignored miracles to avoid tourism loss, with Slovenia, where the party exploited a local miracle for tourism until a priest ruined it, showing the absurdity of state ideology., illustrating ideology reproduced by not taking itself seriously