More than 100 students and friends gathered at a tearful Tuesday prayer service for two St. Thomas students injured in a hit-and-run incident over the weekend in St. Paul.

Attendees filled the Florence Chapel in the lower level of the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas to pray for healing of Rebekka Peterson and Nicholas Bergeland, with presider the Rev. Erich Rutten. Both students are in critical condition at Regions Hospital.

Rutten said during the 15-minute service that at times like these, it’s important to come together and to pray.

Senior Derek Donnelly said he knows Peterson through mutual friends and went to show that the students at St. Thomas care.

He said he attended the service “to show support for Bekka and Nick and for friends that are close with her and family.”

University of Minnesota student Hailey Alexander, Peterson’s friend from Farmington High School, came to the service “to show support for her family and say a prayer for her healing,” she said. “I thought it was beautiful.”

The service included a song, reading from the Gospel, a reflection from Rutten and prayers of intercession for comfort and healing for all involved.

The service ended with Rutten encouraging those present to embrace one another with hugs and signs of peace.

Caroline Rode and Molly Sigler contributed to this story.