Sadhu Sundar Singh
A Sikh who had burned a Gospel; his own account describes a vision of Christ before dawn in 1904.
The record
- Born
- September 3, 1889, Rampur, Punjab
- Converted
- his vision of Christ, 1904; baptized 1905
- Became
- a Christian sadhu — a wandering ascetic preacher
- Died
- disappeared 1929, on a journey toward Tibet
Sundar Singh was born into a Sikh family in the Punjab. As a boy, grieving and angry after his mother’s death, he opposed the Christian missionaries and, on one occasion, publicly burned a copy of a Gospel. His own account of what followed was recorded by B. H. Streeter and A. J. Appasamy in The Message of Sadhu Sundar Singh (1921). Some days after burning the Gospel, having resolved to end his life on the railway line if he received no answer, he rose before dawn to pray.
In the room where I was praying I saw a great light. I thought the place was on fire. I looked round, but could find nothing. Then the thought came to me that this might be an answer that God had sent me. Then as I prayed and looked into the light, I saw the form of the Lord Jesus Christ.Sadhu Sundar Singh, in Streeter & Appasamy, The Message of Sadhu Sundar Singh (1921)
If it had been some Hindu incarnation I would have prostrated myself before it. But it was the Lord Jesus ChristSadhu Sundar Singh, in Streeter & Appasamy (1921)
He was baptized in 1905. Rather than adopt European dress, he took the saffron robe of the Indian holy man and travelled on foot as a Christian sadhu, preaching across northern India and repeatedly crossing into Tibet. He set out on another journey toward Tibet in 1929 and was not seen again. He was born in 1889.