TANSI, CYPRIAN MICHAEL IWENE, BL.

Baptized Michael; Trappist priest; b. Igboezunu near Aguleri, southwestern Nigeria, September 1903; d. Leicester, England, Jan. 20, 1964. Named Iwene ("sorrow will not kill you") by his parents, Tabansi (d. 1904) and Ejikwevi (d. 1922). After his father's death, Iwene was raised by relatives who sent him (1909) to Saint Joseph's school where he was baptized Michael in 1912. Although an accident left him blind in his left eye, he completed school in 1919, and began teaching at his alma mater (1919–22), then at Holy Trinity Primary School in Onitsa (1922–24), and was appointed headmaster at Saint Joseph's in 1924. Michael entered the new seminary at Igbariam in 1925 and was ordained priest (Dec. 19, 1937) in Onitsha's cathedral, the second native priest of the diocese. During his years of active ministry he served in the parishes of Nnewi, Dunukofia (1939–45), Akpu (1945–49), and his hometown of Aguleri (1949–40). He catechized and baptized the future Cardinal Francis Arinze, who attended Tansi's funeral and concelebrated his beatification Mass.

Following a pilgrimage to Rome, Tansi joined (1950) the Trappists as an oblate at Mount Saint Bernard, Leicestershire, England and took the name Cyprian. Administrative problems delayed his entry into the novitiate until Dec. 8, 1953. He made his solemn profession Dec. 8, 1956. In the silence of the monastery, Father Cyprian wrote voluminously. As he gained a reputation for holiness, many came to the monastery to seek his prayers on their behalf. In 1963 his abbot announced that he had been appointed novice master for a monastery opening in Cameroon, but Father Cyprian died before he could undertake the assignment.

Tansi was initially buried in Leicestershire, but in 1988 his remains were exhumed and interred in the priests' cemetery near Onitsha's cathedral in Nigeria. Following his beatification they were translated to the parish church at Aguleri. The archdiocesan process for Tansi's beatification began in July of 1981; the decree of his heroic virtues was promulgated in 1995; a miracle was approved on June 25, 1996. He was beatified at Onitsha, Nigeria, by John Paul II, March 22, 1998.

Bibliography: a. e. isichei, Entirely for God: The Life of Michael Iwene Tansi (London and Kalamazoo, Mich. 1980; Ibadan, Nigeria 1981). v. o. c. umegakwe, Fr. Tansi Solidarity Prayer Movement (Onitsha, Nigeria 1989). e. e. nwosu, Pursuit of holiness (Onitsha, Nigeria 1997).

[k. i. rabenstein]