About the reported apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Mount Zvir, Litmanová, Slovakia:
Litmanová is a Slovak village with a Byzantine Catholic tradition located near the Polish border.
On Aug. 5, 1990, as the Communist Bloc crumbled across Central and Eastern Europe, three children went to pick blueberries on Mount Zvir, that overlooks the village. Four children — Iveta (Ivetka) Korčáková, 11, Katarína (Katka) Češelková, 12, and Katka’s nine-year-old brother, Miťko — were startled by a cracking noise. Scared, they took refuge in a log cabin, which stood in a meadow surrounded by forest.
Inside the cabin, they heard banging sounds that appeared to be getting closer and closer. They prayed for Mary’s protection, promising each other that they would, in the future, be more devoted to their Catholic faith. Amid their prayers, Ivetka and Katka reputedly saw a figure bathed in light who they recognized as the Virgin Mary.
As night was falling, the children left for the village, with the apparition following protectively behind them. When they reached a wayside cross, the figure knelt and crossed herself. The children described her as wearing a white dress, a blue cloak and veil, and a crown. She also had a rosary.
The children told their parents everything they had seen, but they did not believe the story. They also told their priest, who urged them not to spread news of the incident.
Ivetka and Katka returned to the site of the apparition, where the Virgin Mary reputedly appeared to them again and began to impart messages. She called for people to come from all over the country to pray the rosary on Mount Zvir (Hora Zvir in Slovak).
Pilgrims flocked to the site, where there were also reports of a supernatural solar event similar to the 1917 Miracle of the Sun at Fatima. The pilgrims began taking water from a nearby spring, believing it had healing properties.
For five years, Ivetka and Katka recorded short alleged Marian messages at regular intervals, until Aug. 6, 1995, when the figure reportedly announced there would be no further apparitions, though she would remain present at Mount Zvir.
Her final message on that day was:
“My dear children, this revelation is my last. I love you… and I thank you all for what you have done for me here…
My beloved children! I wanted this to happen, to wake you up from the dream of emptiness, so you may understand the need for conversion. In this time, conversion is essential! Please, I beg you. I will remain on this mountain. Reflect on my messages! Stay in my heart during this time! Stay, for you must become more vigilant and simple…
The time that is coming has already begun. Remain like children – completely free for God.
Please, take my words to heart!
I love you and, await for you in heaven”
Following the Apparitions:
When the apparitions began, the girls had been living in Czechoslovakia. Following the peaceful break-up of the country in 1992, they were now residing in Slovakia, the Czech Republic’s poorer, more Catholic neighbor. Many of Litmanová’s younger residents left to work abroad in this uncertain post-communist climate.
Following the apparitions, Ivetka joined a religious community in Stará Halič, central Slovakia, taking the name Maria Goretti. She left nine years later, returning to Litmanová, where she lived with her parents and battled despondency as she searched for a job. She found work caring for the elderly and disabled, later married, and then moved to the U.K.
Katka reportedly married, had two daughters, and emigrated to the U.S.
From 2009 onward, the liturgy was celebrated daily at the site, along with the hearing of confessions.
Hundreds of thousands of people visited the site annually, notably on August 5, the anniversary of the first alleged apparition, but also on Sundays after the First Friday of the month, when the later apparitions occurred.
On Sunday, August 6, 1995, more than 100 thousand pilgrims gathered on mount Zvir to mark the fifth anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Shortly after one o’clock, Father Vladimir Sedlacek approach the microphone. His quiet and serious voice, inviting the attendees to a prayer, made it clear that the words to follow would be profoundly significant and serious. During the silence that had accompanied the monthly meetings between two girls and Our Lady over the past year, many people already sensed that this moment was extraordinary, especially when, after the Rosary, it was a priest’s voice they heard instead of the girls.
Status of the reported apparition in Litmanová, Slovakia:
Mount Zvir fell under the jurisdiction of the Archeparchy of Prešov, part of the Slovak Greek Catholic Church, one of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the pope. Local Bishop Ján Hirka established a commission to investigate the alleged apparitions. His successor, Archbishop Ján Babjak, continued the investigation, reportedly submitting the commission’s conclusions, contained in a 2011 report, to the Vatican’s doctrinal office.
In 2004, Babjak issued a decree formally establishing Mount Zvir as a place of prayer and dedicating a chapel established there to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 2008, he named Mount Zvir a pilgrimage site.
On July 9, 2025 The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith published a letter from its prefect, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, issuing a declaration of nihil obstat (“nothing stands in the way”) for the Marian devotion connected with Mount Zvir.
Note: The letter marked the doctrine office’s first ruling on an alleged apparition since Pope Leo XIV’s election.
Click for a video from Slovakia Tourism.
Traveling to Litmanová, Slovakia:
For those traveling by air, M. R. Štefánik Airport (also called Bratislava Airport)is the main international airport of Slovakia.
Address: Litmanová 10, 065 31 Litmanová, Slovakia
Phone: +421 90 398-2828
Email: info@litmanova.net