A half-century later, emotions still run strong for those who survived
They came to remember their brothers and sisters, their classmates and beloved nuns.
They also came for themselves, as survivors of the fire on Dec. 1, 1958.
Several thousand Our Lady of the Angels alumni and family members took part in a Sunday afternoon Mass at Holy Family Church in Chicago marking the 50th anniversary of the devastating grammar school that took the lives of 92 students and three Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Presiding at the Mass was Bishop John Manz, in place of Cardinal Francis George who was in Rome.
Manz related the fire to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
"Many of us can tell where they were when JFK was shot," he said. "Chicagoans remember equally as well when we heard the news (of the fire at Our Lady of the Angels)."
The fire, he said, came at a time when the Chicago Archdiocese was rapidly expanding, with new parishes and schools opening throughout the city and suburbs.
"In the midst of it all came the fire. The fire," he said. "And it changed the lives of so many. How was this to happen in the midst of so much expansion? Why? There's no easy answer."
Manz implored worshipers to pray not only for those who lost their lives, but for those scarred physically and emotionally by the blaze.
After Manz's homily was a solemn reading of the names of fire victims. Families of students lined up in the church's center aisle, lighting candles in honor of their loved ones.
A dozen members of the Sisters of Charity, many now in their elder years, lit candles in honor of Sister St. Canice Lyng, Sister Clare Therese Champagne and Sister Seraphica Kelley.
Our Lady of the Angels alumnus Jonathan Cain, of the band Journey, performed "The Day They Became Angels," a song he wrote in honor of the fire victims. Free CDs of the song were handed out with booklets before the service.
Letters from Cardinal George, Pope Benedict XVI and Mayor Richard Daley were read at the end of the Mass.
"I cannot imagine that your lives have been free of doubt anymore than they have been free of great pain," Cardinal George wrote. "Yet I do know that the magnificent faith you demonstrate ... testifies not only to all of Chicago but to a world that has only read of your suffering."
A Mass marking the anniversary of the fire has been celebrated for the past several years at Holy Family Church, the Rev. Jerry Boland said. In the rear of the church's nave stands the shrine to fire victims once located at Our Lady of the Angels School.
Many survivors, like Irene (Mordarski) and Gerald Andreoli, of Bloomingdale, said they attend the Mass every year.
Despite many annual features, this year's ceremony was different.
"Fifty is a big number," Irene Andreoli said. "There's an awful lot of emotion today."