Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi
Nigerian theologian and priest that was officially beatified by the Catholic church.
Feast: 20 January (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi was born in 1903 at Igboezunu in southern Nigeria, of the Igbo people. As a boy he professed the Christian faith against his family's wishes, and in 1925, despite his parents' opposition, entered the seminary at Igbariam. He was ordained in Onitsha cathedral in 1937 and threw himself into pastoral work.
In 1952 he entered the Trappist novitiate as Brother Cyprian, making his final vows in 1956. On 20 January 1964, just before he was to lead a new monastic community in Cameroon, he died of an aortic aneurysm.
The miracles
The Dicastery's biography does not describe the miracles approved in the cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
A zealous Nigerian priest who left everything to seek God as a Trappist monk and crowned a holy life with a holy death.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: Cyprian Tansi
- Wikidata Q527715 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.