January 20th. BLESSED CYFRIAN TANSI

 Cistercian Monk    

        

Mass Homily below.

The Mass Introduction was moving quoting from Dom John Moakler:

Of Bl. Cyprian, "His holiness was a hidden holiness... Humility is central to St . Benedict's Rule, and that means, in St. Bernard’s words, that the monk is one who loves to be unknown, Ama Nesciri".

January 20th.

BLESSED CYFRIAN TANSI

(from a homily given by Abbot John Moakler at Mt. St. Bernards on the occasion of his beatification 1998)

It must be quite unique for a mass to be offered in honour of a beatified member of a community by those who actually knew him. Of course there have been occasions in this century when relatives and acquaintances of a person have been present at his or her beatification or canonisation, but I cannot recall any case of a priest offering mass in honour of someone who not so long ago had stood next to him in choir.

The person next to one may always be a .saint. But don’t expect halos to be visible. When Sister Therese of the Child Jesus died, in 1897, one of her community wondered just what could be said about her in the death notice that was sent round to other Carmels, this has usually been taken as a lack of perception on the part of that particular sister, but I think Therese herself would have understood. She" certainly did not want to be thought of as a saint during her life on earth. And I think all of us who knew Father Cyprian would have to admit that when he died we did not think we had lost a saint. His companion Father Mark Ulugu, was the one we would all have spontaneously canonised.

The fact is that we did not really know much about him, beyond the fact that he had come from Nigeria with the intention of taking monastic and contemplative life back to his own country. His reputation as a parish priest and as an apostle was not known to us in any detail. He came among us as one breaking new ground, for what European community at that time, 1950, had any black members?

And it was for him an adventure into the unknown – he had come to a country whose people he had only met as colonisers and exploiters; he had been treated by both missionaries and government officials as a second class person; he had not experienced the damp and cold of our northern climate; he had never seen ice and snow at close quarters before; and this was not enough, he was not just coming to England he was coming to a Cistercian monastery in England, which even most English people themselves would have found difficult to survive in, so the challenges to perseverance were considerable. In addition the novitiate regime at the time was very strict

Some of the present community worked with Cyprian. They have their own memories a and stories. He was uncompromising in his living of the life, yet there was always a gentleness and a. humour there, and he did not give the appearance of a hard ascetic. The strict rule of silence at the time meant that many of us were never able to converse with him, and although he was next to me in choir for some time, and acted as a deacon at the first Mass in 1956, I could not say that I really knew him. But one thing is certain – he did not appear extraordinary in any way. His holiness was a hidden holiness. It was the holiness of an ordinary person who lives his faith and his union with God at a level not apparent to others. Those who had known him in Nigeria and had seen his apostolic zeal and dedication as a parish priest were no doubt more aware of what was in the man than we were. Members of a monastic community are not heroes to each other, and they are often more conscious of each other's failings than of their virtues.

Humility is central to St . Benedict's Rule, and that means, in St. Bernard’s words, that the monk is one who loves to be unknown, Ama Nesciri.

Cyprian lived that and only after 34 years after his death is he becoming known – even to those with whom he lived.