Source: Los Angeles Times
On July 19, 2003 the Los Angeles Times reported that "the painting of the would-be Nigerian saint in stately old St. Cecilia Catholic Church in South Los Angeles stands as a symbol of cultural differences and unity within a universal faith... The portrait of the Blessed Michael Iwene Tansi is a study in contrasts. The artist has divided Tansi through the middle from head to toe: The left half of his figure is depicted in the habit of a Cistercian monk. His right side is draped in the traditional robes of a Nigerian king. He stands against a bifurcated backdrop of an English monastery on the left, where he died in 1964, and his native African village on the right... But what intrigues Father Michael Ekwutosi Ume is another feature of the portrait that might escape notice: Tansi's dual figure casts a single undifferentiated shadow. 'It represents spirit bringing the two cultures together,' says Ume, a Nigerian native and Los Angeles pastor... Ume ministers to an estimated 1,200 Nigerian Catholics who share St. Cecilia's with African American and Latino parishioners. Twice monthly, and on special occasions like Mother's Day, Christmas and Easter, he and nine other Nigerian priests take turns saying Mass there in Igbo, one of the main languages of Nigeria, predominant in the southeastern part of the country."