Tansi Community

Michael Cyprian Iwenne Tansi was born in 1903 in Anambra State, Nigeria
of poor farmers. His father sent him to a Catholic school in Onitsha run by
the Holy Ghost Fathers in the hope of his getting a good enough education
to support the family. His family was appalled at his entrance to the
seminary, because they wanted him to go into business or something that
would take them out of poverty, which was what his father had always
planned. When he became a parish priest, he lived a very austere life in
comparison to the other priests around him. 

He organized the community to help the poor and needy, and he personally would help people to build their own homes or perform other projects. He also stood up against oppression of women within the traditional culture and advised women to
fight back against those who would rape them or mistreat them.

To an extent, he was influential in the establishment of women’s rights in
Nigeria. Fr. Michael had a special interest in preparing young women for
marriage. With the help of local nuns, the women were taught about Christian marriage and how to care for the children they would have During Fr. Michael’s time as a young priest, there were no monasteries established in Nigeria, and the bishop was interested in the idea of sending some candidates to a monastery in Europe who would become monks in Europe and later would return to Nigeria to start up the first Nigerian monastery. Michael and others were selected for this project. 

He became a Cistercian Monk at Mount Saint Bernard Monastery in England.
He died on the 20th of January 1964 of arteriosclerosis and a ruptured aneurysm. His body was buried at the monastery in England, but was later interred at the Cathedral Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity, Onitsha, Nigeria after lying in state at the Jesuit parish, Christ the King, in Lagos.