Lot 27: PROF. UCHE OKEKE (NIGERIAN, 1933-2016) The Blessed Cyprian

PROF. UCHE OKEKE (NIGERIAN, 1933-2016) The Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi (1903-1964) initialled and dated ‘UO 89 (lower left); inscribed ‘Father Tansi #76’ (verso) gouache on paper 51 x 36cm (20 1/16 x 14 3/16in).

Provenance Commissioned by the Holy Trinity Cathedral, Onitsha, Nigeria. A Private Collection. Father Cyprian Tansi was a Nigerian monk who joined the monastic community at Mount Saint Bernard Abbey near Coalville, Leicestershire in 1950 where he devoted his life to prayer and sacrifice. Following his death he was buried in the monastery grounds, but in 1986 he was exhumed and returned to Nigeria. It was at the welcoming ceremony for his remains at Onitsha Cathedral that Cyprian’s miracle occurred. It is reported that a dying woman attended the ceremony and when the coffin was brought up the aisle of the cathedral she put out her hand and touched it and was instantly cured of her stomach cancer. The process of Canonisation proceeded when Cyprian was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1998.