Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi is a native of Aguleri town of Anambra State, Nigeria. He was born in Aguleri, in
September 1903 and he died in Leicester, England on January
24, 1964. He was of Igbo Ethnic group of Nigeria, an ordained Catholic priest of the Catholic Archdiocese of
Onitsha, Nigeria. The date of his ordination was December
19, 1937. While still alive, he worked in the Nnewi,
Dunukofia, Akpu/Ajalli and Aguleri parishes.
Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi later became a
Cistercian Monk at Mount Saint Bernard Monastery in
England. After he was recommended by Cardinal Francis
Arinze, whose own life was inspired by Tansi, Tansi was
beatified by Pope John Paul II on March 22, 1998. Cardinal
Francis Arinze was one of Tans's students. While beautifying
him, the Pope stated: "Blessed Cyprian Michael Tansi is a
prime example of the fruits of holiness which have grown and
matured in the Church in Nigeria since the Gospel was first
preached in his land. He received the gift of faith through the
efforts of the missionaries, and taking the Christian way of
life as his own he made it truly African and Nigerian."
Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi 's feast day is January
20.
Tansi's father's name was Tabansi of Igbezunu village,
Aguleri. Shortly before he gave birth to Tansi, He was one of
the people taken hostage by the Royal Niger Company, and
was later released. His hostage story went as follows: Before
Michael was born, Nigeria was a British colony. The British
[Royal Niger Company] was trading in Aguleri, buying palm
oil from the local people, and selling same abroad. An
incident took place at the time. A local man named
Onwurume had wanted to take a little palm oil to rub on his
roasted yam (yam is a staple food of Igbo people, and palm
oil eaten with yams is the cultural equivalent of butter to
bread but much more satisfying). In order to get the oil, punctured a barrel of palm oil.
However, the hole he made on the barrel of oil caused the
entire barrel to be emptied out. Seeing the damage he has
caused, the man ran away but was later arrested by employees
of the Company, and put into custody. When the local people
heard what had transpired, they gathered together to negotiate
with the company agents, but the company invited the military
and arrested the twelve chiefs who came to do the negotiation,
and thereafter, attacked the community, including the
neighboring villages, burning down the homes of the local
people, pillaging their property as well as mistakenly
destroying a nearby village of a different group that had
nothing to do with the incident.
Tabansi, Michael's father was one of the people taken hostage
over the incident. Given birth to Michael who is equally his
first son, after he was released from the hostage, he named
him 'Iwe-egbune' shortened to Iwene, meaning 'let malice not
kill'; which was the birth-name of Cyprian Michael Iwene
Tansi. It is important to point out here that though, Michaels'
father was a pagan, he was however not a polygamist, he
married twice, but his second wife was married after he lost
the first one to death. Michael was his first born. His second
wife gave him four boys and one girl.
With the intention of getting his son to receive a better
education that would help lead their family out of poverty,
and never again taken advantage of by the westerners, Blessed
Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi 's father sent him to a Catholic
mission school. That decision made Michael to automatically
become a Catholic by being enrolled and taught at the school,
and eventually baptized in the year 1913, and the Christian
name, Michael given to him. When he graduated, he became a
teacher, and worked as such from 1919 to 1925.
At the period under consideration, there were very little
acceptance of black people into priesthood in Nigeria. The
Bishop was Irish, and most of the clergymen were European.
Bishop Shanahan considers the native Igbo as still being
steeped in pagan culture; even after conversion and that it was
going to be difficult to train them to become proper catholic
priests. Igbo could become priests then, but were subject to
strict discipline and we're often expelled. The concern of the
priests who taught them were that only the best men
should become priests.
Michael however, attended seminary from 1925 to 1937. His
family, who were appalled at his entrance to the seminary,
had wanted him to go into business or something else that
would take them out of poverty, which had always been the
plan of his father. His family who were poor, were in
desperate need of his help, but he felt that God, wanted him to
continue in the seminary rather than do something else.
At the time, almost all priests in Nigeria were foreign
missionaries and very few Africans were ordained to the
priesthood. The foreign missionaries were often not willing to
live in the same poverty or bad conditions of life that the
native-born Nigerians lived, consequently, if any community,
wanted a parish priest at that time, they would get their money
together and must be able to supply enough money so that the
priest could live reasonably well. Thus erecting a church
building and the priest's house (which instead of adobe or
mud, could be brick or concrete having a zinc roof), buying a
car for the priest, good food which includes wine, chickens,
tea or coffee and other foreign imported foods, etc. The
people expected to supply the money for the priest to get these
things were most of the times, subsistence farmers, who
themselves lacked basics of life, including healthcare and
education and were always malnourished.
The church then members to regularly pay money called
Annual Missionary Collection, and parishioners who failed to
contribute could potentially be denied the sacraments, a
Christian funeral, etc. When African priests became more
common they most often followed the same example of the
lifestyle of the foreign missionaries and did like them. Monks
and nuns of those days had much more comfortable lifestyles
than the norm that the poor peasant majority was used to;
which was considered great detraction from the entire purpose
of someone becoming a monk or nun, wherein they were
ordinarily expected to reject the goods of the world just to
follow God. People then began to consider the priesthood, or
a life as a monk or nun as a way of escaping poverty and
living a better life.
When Cyprian Michael Iwene became a parish priest, he
refused to adopt the lifestyle described above. He lived an
austere life. He rejected a nice home, and would build his
own home using traditional materials like adobe and mud. He
would even put rocks on his bed to make it uncomfortable. He
would eat poorer food than what the local people ate. He
survived on tiny portions of yams that he sometimes
purposely had completely burnt or improperly cooked.
Sometimes when motorbike is provided for his transportation,
would reject it and preferred to use a bicycle or even trek to
his destination not minding the huge distance. He would walk
in tropical rainstorms.
Cyprian Michael Iwene's lifestyle shocked and amazed the
Nigerian Catholics, who were not accustomed to his kind of
priest. His lifestyle became extremely popular and loved
among the four parishes that he served. He organized the
communities he worked in to help the poor and needy, and
would personally help people to build their own homes or do
other projects. He never made payment for ANC a condition
for poor people to benefit from the sacraments. He was
always remembered being very kind.
Cyprian Michael Iwene confronted vice among his flock. He
would not allow men to see their brides before they got
married, just to prevent pre-marital sex. He would get the
community to place the would-be-bride in a special home
where she would be taken care of; until she got married, and
the groom would not be allowed to go there without Fr. Tansi's permission. He also had a women's group organized to
enforce disciplines on their own members, such that if one of
their members had an abortion they would have her uniform
burnt in a ceremony and have her expelled. He was also
a very strict disciplinarian. This and many more has earn his place in the heart of many christians till today that is why we all remember him today, share if you care for the gospel of Christ Jesus
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