Former Medjugorje devotee identified as suspect in act of desecration

MEDJUGORJE, Bosnia-Herzegovina (LifeSiteNews) — Police in Bosnia and Herzegovina arrested a man on Tuesday after Marian statues at the popular pilgrimage site in Medjugorje were defaced with black paint and blasphemous slogans and an outdoor altar at the local parish church was set on fire.

Authorities have not released the suspect’s identity, but Polish and Croatian media have identified the man as 31-year-old Bartłomiej  (“Bartek”) Włodzimierz Krakowiak, a Polish Catholic convert known for undertaking a lengthy pilgrimage on foot to the site in 2017. The attack took place on the same day of the arrest; police say the investigation is ongoing and that no official motive has yet been established.

READ: Vandals desecrate Marian statues, torch altar at Medjugorje days before youth festival

Investigators allege that the officially unidentified suspect vandalized the statue of Our Lady on the hillside of Podbrdo, commonly known as “Apparition Hill,” by covering it with black paint and writing messages including “Only Jesus” and “Devil in a Skirt.” The perpetrator also set fire to the outdoor altar of St. James church, the parish church that serves as the center of the Medjugorje pilgrimage site.

Authorities further reported discovering messages criticizing both the alleged visionaries associated with Medjugorje and the reported apparitions themselves, including the accusation, “They are fraudsters, I have evidence.” Investigators have not publicly explained what may have motivated the attack, and officials have emphasized that the inquiry remains active.

According to Polish media reports, Bartek Krakowiak – identified by the outlets in pictures of the arrest – become well-known in Poland after making the roughly 800 mile walk from Warsaw to Medjugorje in 2017, a journey he later described as the turning point of his return to the Catholic faith following years of family difficulty, crime, and addiction. He published a memoir, Z buta do Maryi (“On Foot to Mary”), about the 57-day pilgrimage and spoke about his conversion in parishes, schools, and prisons. His testimony was later featured in the 2024 Polish film Powołany (i.e., Called) 2. According to another account, the miscarriage death of his first child  became a decisive moment that led him to undertake the pilgrimage.

Additional information available from Krakowiak’s public social media activity on Instagram offers further insight into changes in his religious outlook in recent years, although it does not establish any connection to the alleged crimes.

Posts published before his account ceased updating in January 2024 indicate that he joined a charismatic Catholic community based in Kraków known as Głos na Pustyni (“Voice in the Desert”) in September 2023. In announcing his affiliation with the group, Krakowiak reflected on how his spirituality had changed after his conversion. He wrote that he never considered himself a “traditional” Catholic and believed his spiritual disposition had always been more “charismatic.”

“When I encountered God during my journey to Medjugorje, I was immediately placed in the ‘traditionalist’ category,” he complained. “After these years of spiritual growth, I know that even then my heart was ‘charismatic,’ although I did not yet know that definition.”

He also described discomfort with what he regarded as restrictive forms of Catholic practice, writing that he wanted to read and receive Scripture personally and that he enjoyed praising God with raised hands, practices he said were sometimes criticized in Catholic circles.

“It weighed on me that people imposed specific forms of prayer on me: I could not understand why only the priest, during Mass, was allowed to explain the Word of God, when I myself had the desire to read the Word personally and receive it as I felt it,” Krakowiak wrote.

“I loved praising God with my hands raised, and this was criticized. For almost three years, in many Catholic circles I was called a Protestant, because I differed greatly from the norms accepted in that particular environment.”

He added that he had encountered “more Protestants” within the Catholic Church than in his wife’s, Patrycja’s, Pentecostal community.

Investigators found messages at the crime scene criticizing Marian devotion, including the phrase “Only Jesus,” an expression commonly associated with some Evangelical and Pentecostal circles. However, neither investigators nor prosecutors have publicly identified any ideological or religious motive, and no official explanation for the alleged vandalism has been released to date.

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Following the incident, individuals associated with the Medjugorje pilgrimage site called for prayer rather than retaliation. Father Gian Matteo Roggio said that when a sacred place is profaned, “the Christian community is called to make reparation.” He added that this response reflects “the scandalous affirmation of Christianity: the one who committed this act does not cease to be our brother.”

“We make reparation for him,” Roggio said, “asking that the grace of the Lord enlighten his heart so that he may recognize the evil he has done and one day make reparation through a life worthy of the Gospel.”