In his biographical book Tortured for his Faith, Pastor Haralan Popov describes how in 1948 he was unjustly accused of espionage and subjected to a ‘show trial’ by the communist regime in Bulgaria. While suffering torture to break him down, he tells of looking out of the window of his cell and seeing the sign of the cross on the factory opposite. It may have been an optical illusion caused by the sun, but to him at the time, it was a sign from God.

He says, “I stood at the cell window a long time, looking at the cross and thinking of the cross on which Jesus died and of his love and goodness. Suddenly, a voice as real as any I have ever heard said, ‘My son, this is your cross which you must bear. Prepare yourself for more suffering.’ 

“Though I knew something terrible was about to happen, the sign of that cross gave me a feeling of confidence in God and, looking through the bars on the cell window, I started singing a favourite hymn: 

“Beneath the cross of Jesus

I fain would take my stand. 

The shadow of a mighty rock,

Within a weary land:

A home within the wilderness,

A rest upon the way,

From the burning of the noontide heat,

And the burden of the day.