Priests gathered last Sunday at St Nicholas – Brosteni Church in Bucharest to pray for the survivors and the victims of a deadly fire that broke out at a nightclub in Romania’s capital seven years ago.
The assembly of priests was led by the dean of Bucharest’s Sector 4, Fr. Ionuț Bărbulescu. The prayers gathered relatives of the victims, volunteers who helped those affected by the fire and many journalists.
The Divine Liturgy was followed by two memorial services. The priests first commemorated the Colectiv club fire victims during a service in front of a white monument depicting an angel praying that was erected by the Orthodox Archdiocese of Bucharest at the initiative of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel.
A second memorial ceremony was held in front of the former Colectiv nightclub.
“We prayed for the young people who perished in the fire and for others who were severely injured,” dean Ionuț Bărbulescu told Radio Trinitas.
The dean compared the young victims of the disaster to the poor man Lazarus in a parable of Jesus that was read in churches on Sunday, October 30.
“Nothing in our life is by chance. The youth in the Colectiv likewise endured terrible suffering. As a Church, we have prayed that the Merciful Lord would place them in his everlasting mansions, just as this poor man Lazarus, of whom the Gospel speaks to us on this 22nd Sunday after Pentecost, has been placed because of his patience,” the dean stated.
On behalf of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel, the priests deposited a wreath at the scene of the tragedy.
On the night of October 30-31, 2015, a fire broke out inside the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest. Sixty-five young people perished in the disaster or as a result of it, and more than 150 were wounded.
Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro / Mircea Florescu
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