By Kostas Onisenko
The bells are ringing mournfully today in all the sacred temples of Tatarstan, Russia.
Priests of the Diocese of Kazan and Tatarstan held memorial services for the victims of the tragedy that took place yesterday at school 147 when a 19-year-old gunman stormed in and opened fire on students and staff.
Nine people – six of them children – were killed and more than 20 were injured, some of them in critical condition.
Yesterday, the Patriarch of Moscow sent condolences to the families of the victims. “On these difficult days, days of grief and mourning, the Russian Orthodox Church is with you, with the relatives and friends of the slain and the wounded,” said Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.
Today, a memorial service for the victims and a prayer for the injured in the tragedy were held in all the temples of Tatarstan.
“Today is a day of mourning in Tatarstan, a day of great sorrow. Sadness has united people of different nationalities and doctrines,” said Metropolitan Kirill and Tatarstan, among other things.