Life
Gora near Sodražica is located approximately 50 kilometers south of Ljubljana and is the parish name for five villages – Kržeti, Betonovo, Petrinci, Kračali, and Janeži. These small villages lie about 885 meters above sea level. Down from the church in the small hollow below stretches Janeži – the birth village of Magdalena Gornik. In that small village, house number 4 (today’s 11), the child Magdalena was born on 19 July 1835 of the poor farming parents, Ana and Joseph Gornik. She was the third of seven children. She was baptized that same day in the local church, Mary of the Snows, in Gora.
Gora near Sodražica.
In her childhood years, Magdalena was a completely typical farm girl. She helped her parents with chores and liked the company of her peers. They played, worked, and also prayed together; she often taught them Christian lessons, which she liked to attend. She was a lively and bright girl, with blue eyes and a weak constitution, straightforward, and gentle. She was friendly and loving towards others. She used free time most often for prayer or for listening to spiritual discussions; she cultivated a special love for Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament. However, her childhood piety was hidden from others.
At eleven years old, in the spring of 1847, she was sent off by her mother to pick weeds for the pigs. On the way to the field, Magdalena experienced her first encounter with a Heavenly Lady. She appeared to Magdalena as a farm woman and asked Magdalena to whom she will offer her work and if she loved Jesus. Magdalena answered that she will offer her work to Jesus and that Jesus knows best if she loves him. Magdalena did not recognize the woman. The woman then introduced herself as the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of all people. The intention of her appearance was to invite Magdalena to give thanks to God for all that is good, to offer every task to Him, and also to love still more fervently her Son, Jesus. The apparition reached very deeply into Magdalena’s heart; she told no one of this for some years. From that time, Magdalena prayed still more and attentively prepared to receive First Holy Communion.
Magdalena’s birth house (August 2018).
In 1847, Magdalena received First Holy Communion. With this, God enkindled such a burning love in her heart that her physical strength diminished such that she could hardly return to the bench from the Communion table. When she fell onto her knees to give thanksgiving, she heard a voice from the altar: “Tell no one what you experienced”, She was convinced that other girls also heard the voice. “No”, the voice continued, “they do not hear this voice, only you. I am the One, whom you just consummed”.
About her experience, Magdalena told no one. Her piety grew, and at each Holy Mass her heart burned more and more in love of Jesus.
Soon after this, she began attending Sunday School, so she would learn to read. In this same year, it was not long before Magdalena became severely ill. After some months, her health became so much worse that she could not get up from her bed. She endured terrible abdominal pain and was not able to eat. No medicine helped her. The illness intensified and pain became increasingly severe until August of 1848. With another vision of the Mother of God on August 2, 1848, Magdalena recovered. The Woman appealed to Magdalena to bear her suffering patiently and offer it to God – that in doing this she should think upon Jesus and His suffering. She further summoned Magdalena to firmly trust in Jesus – that from Him she would receive all, including food for her earthly life.
Some days after this vision of the Woman and the first ecstasy, a different life began for Magdalena. Her life mission began: to experience Christ’s suffering in body and soul with the intention of making reparation for the sins of others and to admonish people to convert to God. For this mission, God bestowed upon her remarkable spiritual gifts and mystical phenomena. With these gifts, God demonstrated the authenticity of Magdalena’s admonitions and invited them to return to Him.
The small monument stands in the place of Magdalena's first vision in the village of Janeži. The church of Gora is in the background.
Because of her gifts many pondered upon their own life and converted from their previous way of living, beginning anew, in friendship with God. Frequently in visions, God revealed how people offend Him with sins, and she saw the punishments that would fall upon mankind if not converted. Some punishments she predicted (e.g., illness and war) came true during her lifetime. The Church examined Magdalena’s life while she was living with an inquiry by the Sodražica pastor, Joseph Lesjak, and determined that the mystical phenomena she exhibited were authentic and that she lived in accord with strict moral and spiritual principles.
Until her death (23 February 1896), Magdalena lived in especially prayerful and mystical intimacy with the Lord. At the same time, she also very active in her social life – she taught children in Sunday School; she took care of household chores at the rectory of Bloke, had a chapel renovated, and made possible the education of two students. The deceased Fr. Kaplenek, pastor of the church in Bloke where she resided, entrusted her with settling from his estate the debt from the renovation of the church in Bloke. Although Magdalena did not like it, people came to visit her because of mystical phenomena – they came to her from near and far (Austria, Italy, Polish Galicia, and Croatia), asking advice, bringing their problems, and requesting her prayers.
