Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi

Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi // , OCSO (September 1903 – 20 January 1964) was an Igbo Nigerian priest of the Catholic Church who worked in the Archdiocese of Onitsha and later became a Trappist monk at Mount Saint Bernard Monastery in England. On 22 March 1998, he was beatified by Pope John Paul II. His feast day is 20 January. Tansi was born in September 1903, in an area of Nigeria under the control of the Royal Niger Company (RNC). The RNC maintained a trading outpost in Aguleri, purchasing palm oil from local farmers to sell abroad. Relations between the local population and the foreign company were often strained. Michael's father, Tabansi of Igbezunu, was once taken hostage by the Royal Niger Company and later released. Michael was the oldest son. His name Iwene meant 'let malice not kill'. His parents were poor farmers; they were not Christian. His mother was sentenced to death by a medicine man because he decided she was responsible for the deaths of several youngsters in the village. After her death from swallowing poison, Iwene's father married again. He and his second wife had four boys and one girl. When Iwene was a young child, he became permanently blinded in one eye as a result of a mud-fight with other children. His father sent Iwene to Holy Trinity School in Onitsha, which was run by the Holy Ghost Fathers. Tabansi meant for his son to get a better education that would help lead their family out of poverty. Michael was baptized on 7 July 1913 with the Christian name of Michael. At the school, Michael served as an altar boy and catechist. Upon graduating, he became a teacher, and worked as such from 1919 to 1925, Later, he became headmaster at St. Joseph's school in Aguleri. At that time, few locals in Nigeria were becoming priests. Most of the clergy were Europeans. While Igbo could become priests, they were subject to strict discipline and were often expelled from seminary for relatively minor lapses.