In a kinematically complete experiment at the Mainz microtron MAMI, pion angular distributions of the 3 He(e,e'π + ) 3 H reaction have been measured in the excitation Preprint submitted to Elsevier Science 28 April 2018 region of the ∆ resonance to determine the longitudinal (L), transverse (T ), and the LT interference part of the differential cross section. The data are described only after introducing self-energy modifications of the pion and ∆-isobar propagators. Using Chiral Perturbation Theory (ChPT) to extrapolate the pion self energy as inferred from the measurement on the mass shell, we deduce a reduction of the π + mass of ∆m π + = −1.7 + 1.7 − 2.1 MeV/c 2 in the neutron-rich nuclear medium at a density of ρ = 0.057 + 0.085 − 0.057 fm −3 . Our data are consistent with the ∆ self energy determined from measurements of π 0 photoproduction from 4 He and heavier nuclei.