Tuesday, October 12, marks the 40th day since the tragic climax of the crisis, which left more than 330 children, school teachers, and other grownups dead.

Under the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the 40 days after a person’s death is a period of strict mourning, when the relatives and friends of that person remembers him or her as “the most recently departed” one.

The majority of people in Beslan and, generally, North Ossetia are disciples of the Russian Orthodox Church.

“Forty days have passed since the death of innocent people at the hands of the terrorists, who seized the general school in Beslan,” Alexy II says in a special address to the nation.

“This has been a period of bitter grief and trial for the families of the departed ones, and only other people’s sympathy, compassion, and prayers have made it possible for them to get over the grief and gave strength to them to continue living,” the address says.

“The cruelty of the thugs overfilled with hatred and malice shocked the world community and left a deep imprint in the heart of every Russian,” Alexy II says.

He wishes courage to the relatives and friends of the dead in overcoming the aftermath of that most heinous crime.

A special liturgy in remembrance of the victims was chanted at Moscow’s Cathedral of the Savior Tuesday morning. Archbishop Arsenius of Istra took part in it.

“Tradition requires that on the 40th day after someone’s death a particular remembrance service must be chanted,” he said, and that’s why we’ve gathered here in the Cathedral of the Savior to pray for those who were slain or died of wounds,” the Most Rev. Arsenius said.

“Malicious people tried to sew discord in our society, but their schemes flopped, because our people always stands up united to face the times of trial – and we definitely saw how our compatriots sympathized with the victims of the tragedy,” he said.

Remembrance services have been held in all the Russian Orthodox churches in North Ossetia and all across the country.

Itar-Tass correspondent in North Ossetia, Madina Sageyeva says the Archbishop of Stavropol and Vladikavkaz Theophanes, who had stayed on Beslan’s central square together with the relatives of the hostages during all the three days of the crisis, chanted the remembrance sermons right in Beslan.

In line with the Orthodox tradition, families and friends of the hostages, whom the terrorists killed in the first two days of the crisis, are having special remembrance dinners Tuesday.

Different events commemorating the victims of the Beslan tragedy will be held there until the end of the week.

Members of the Ossetian community living in Moscow are paying tribute to ten servicemen of the Alfa crack unit of the Russian Army, who lost their lives while freeing the hostages.

October 15, a charity concert will be organized in the Cathedral of the Savior. Money will be raised at it to finance construction of a memorial church in Beslan.

MOSCOW, October 12 (Itar-Tass)