Richard Wurmbrand

Biography

Reverend Richard Wurmbrand was an evangelical minister who spent fourteen years in Communist imprisonment and torture in his homeland of Romania. He is one of Romania's most widely known Christian leaders, authors, and educators.

In 1945, when the Communists seized Romania and attempted to control the churches for their purposes, Richard Wurmbrand immediately began an effective "underground" ministry to his enslaved people and the invading Russian soldiers. He was eventually arrested in 1948.

Richard spent three years in solitary confinement, seeing no one but his Communist torturers.

His wife, Sabina, was a slave laborer for three years.

Due to his international stature as a Christian leader, diplomats of foreign embassies asked the Communist government about his safety. They were told he had fled Romania. Secret police, posing as released fellow prisoners, told his wife of attending his burial in the prison cemetery.

Rev. Wurmbrand was released in a general amnesty in 1964. Realizing the great danger of a third imprisonment, Christians in Norway negotiated with the Communist authorities for his release from Romania. The "going price" for a prisoner was $1,900. Their price for Wurmbrand was $10,000.

In may 1966, he testified in Washington before the Senate's Internal Security Subcommittee and stripped to the waist to show eighteen deep torture wounds covering his body. His story was carried across the world newspapers in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

Rev. Wurmbrand has been called "the voice of the underground church." His books are best sellers in over fifty languages.

      The Director of the Mission

     V. Reverend Radu Roscanu