After 73 years as a priest and almost 80 years of wearing the Franciscan habit, Fr. Zoran Ostojic died at 98 on October 17. Many pilgrims met him: Born in Medjugorje, he spent 40 years in the United States before returning home in 1990, with the main task of hearing confessions.
Fr. Zoran Ostojic
Wednesday saw the end of an unusually long life and service as a priest when Fr. Zoran Ostojic died in Medjugorje at age 98.
Born in Medjugorje on August 23rd 1914, Fr. Zoran took the Franciscan habit in 1933, and was ordained a priest in 1939. A long life and an early calling combined to give him 73 years as a priest.
Fr. Zoran was known by many English speaking Medjugorje pilgrims who met him as a confessor. Having lived in the United States for 40 years since 1950, he was fluent in English when he returned to Medjugorje in 1990 and experienced how his place of birth, completely unknown when he left it, had now become a world-famous pilgrimage site.
For 13 hours on October 18th, Fr. Zoran’s body will be exposed in St. James Church in Medjugorje.