Ten summers ago, six Croatian youths in the Yugoslavian countryside said they had visions of the Virgin Mary and received messages from her. As the Madonna's purported messages continued, often daily, millions of Catholic tourists flocked to the village of Medjugorje, making it a rival of the famous Roman Catholic pilgrimage sites of Lourdes and Fatima.

But things have been going badly lately for Mary of Medjugorje (pronounced Meh-ju-gor-yay). This most-publicized of Marian apparitions in recent years failed last winter to get the endorsement of the Catholic hierarchy. Then, the country's political strife and economic troubles have reduced the flow of U.S. and European pilgrims to a trickle.

It is uncertain whether this bodes ill for a movement that has attracted an international following waiting for the latest message from Mary.

The six purported visionaries, now in their 20s, continue to convey messages emphasizing piety, peace and reconciliation through Franciscan priests assigned to the Medjugorje parish. At least 40 Medjugorje information centers--not counting many religious, quasi-travel outfits--have sprung up in the United States to tell believers of this alleged divine channel to the mother of Jesus.

Pilgrimages to Yugoslavia, which have drawn between 10 and 15 million people according to some estimates, feed the fervor for Medjugorje's cause. "Without that stoking for an extended period, the fire could burn very low," said John DeMers of New Orleans, co-author of a guidebook for Medjugorje pilgrims.

"My most successful friends in the Medjugorje business around the United States have stopped going," DeMers said. Plane service is limited, and even ferry service across the Adriatic Sea from Italy is not doing the business it once did, DeMers said.

Peter K. Miller, who heads Queen of Peace Ministries in Huntington Beach, says he still takes about 50 people each month to the site. But that is half the number he was taking, Miller said.

Miller says his groups travel by plane to Belgrade, then to the small airport at Mostar, about 30 miles away from Medjugorje, which is located in a quiet Croatian area of the Yugoslav republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Sponsors of a two-day Medjugorje Peace Conference, which begins next Saturday on the UC Irvine campus, expect to draw more than 4,000 people, mostly believers, exceeding the registration at last year's meeting.