Cardinal Arinze remembers Blessed Tansi, the holy priest who baptized him and may become Nigeria’s first saint. His life of prayer still inspires millions.
Newsroom (28/01/2026 Gaudium Press ) At 93, Cardinal Francis Arinze, one of Nigeria’s most respected Catholic leaders, still remembers vividly the man who baptized him — a priest whose simplicity, holiness, and fiery zeal left a mark that has endured for more than eight decades. That priest was Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi, a name that may soon enter Church history as Nigeria’s first native saint.
In 1941, a nine-year-old Francis Arinze received baptism at the hands of Father Tansi in the eastern region of Nigeria. “He was the first priest I knew,” Arinze recalled. “He brought me into the church: baptism, first Communion. I was his Mass server in 1945; my first Communion at his hands. He prepared me for confirmation.”
For Arinze, those early years were transformative. Serving at Father Tansi’s Masses, studying at his parish school, and witnessing his life of prayer left an indelible mark on the boy who would later become a cardinal and a Vatican prefect. “To see him celebrate Mass,” he said, “you could not be indifferent.”
A Missionary on Two Wheels
During the 1930s and 1940s, when few indigenous priests served in Nigeria, Father Tansi carried the Gospel across the region on a bicycle. “He was a parish priest single-handedly in what is now 40 parishes,” Cardinal Arinze remembered. “He hadn’t a car. He had a push bicycle and a motorcycle, which functioned sometimes. He was extraordinary.”
His ministry left a legacy that flourished long after his death. “Two hundred priests have arisen from those areas; three or four bishops, one cardinal, religious sisters, more than 200 seminarians,” Arinze said. “He was like fire. Fire is warm; if you are near it, you cannot be indifferent.”
From Humble Beginnings to Priesthood
Born in 1903 into a poor, non-Christian family in southeastern Nigeria, Michael Iwene Tansi’s life began in hardship. His mother died under tragic circumstances, condemned by local superstition. Despite poverty, young Michael’s father sent him to a missionary school run by the Holy Ghost Fathers, where he was baptized in 1913.
When Tansi entered St. Paul’s Seminary in Igbariam in 1925, Nigerian seminarians were a rarity. He was ordained in 1937, among the first priests native to eastern Nigeria. His pastoral heart extended to education, especially for children. At his parish boarding school, boys were formed by both discipline and devotion. “He read to them the life of Dominic Savio,” Arinze recalled. “It was like a small seminary.”
A Life of Austerity and Prayer
Father Tansi’s holiness was marked by rigorous asceticism. “His prayer life was extraordinary,” Arinze said. “Those who knew him revealed that there were little stones in his bed.” He ate little, dressed simply, and lived humbly, even encouraging seminarians to eat more while he refrained himself.
His care extended deeply to families and women, promoting chastity and dignity at a time when such values faced cultural resistance. He built his rectory from local materials and shared the same poverty as his flock. “When he was our parish priest, to see him was like a sermon, even when he did not speak,” Arinze said.
Monk and Missionary at Heart
In 1950, yearning for a more contemplative life, Father Tansi entered the Trappist Abbey of Mount St. Bernard in England, taking the monastic name Cyprian. He dreamed of returning to Africa to found a monastery, but illness intervened. He died in 1964 at 61, never returning to his homeland in life.
Thirty-four years later, on March 22, 1998, Pope John Paul II beatified him before a vast crowd in Oba, Nigeria — the first West African so honored. The pope praised his “great love of God” shown in prayer and simplicity, calling him “a man of the people” who gave everything for others.
Why Nigeria Awaits a Saint
Despite having one of the world’s largest Catholic populations — an estimated 35 million faithful and among the highest Mass attendance rates globally — Nigeria has yet to see one of its sons or daughters canonized.
Cardinal Arinze attributes this delay not to Rome but to local priorities. “The Church in Nigeria has to place beatification and canonization causes as a pastoral priority,” he said. “We build churches, schools, and seminaries, but we do not rush to start the cause of beatification.”
He also warns against focusing exclusively on priests and religious. “If only clerics are beatified, the impression is given that to be a good Christian you have to be a cleric,” he said. The ongoing cause for 14-year-old Vivian Ogu, martyred in 2009 for her faith, is one sign of that broadening vision.
The Example That Endures
As the Church awaits another miracle through Blessed Tansi’s intercession — the final step toward canonization — Nigerians continue to draw strength from his example. His life, Cardinal Arinze said, embodies the kind of living faith that built the Church in Africa: prayerful, selfless, and aflame with love for God.
“If you are going to be a Christian at all,” Blessed Tansi once said, “you might as well live entirely for God.”
- Raju Hasmukh with files from NCR
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