Father Ignatius (George) Spencer CP 1799 - 1864

The Servant of God,
Father Ignatius (George) Spencer CP
Apostle of England

Researched by Sister Dominic Savio [Dr E. Hamer] CP
Mt St Joseph Convent, Bolton BL3 4HF
Father Ignatius Spencer CP (1799-1864) was the youngest child of George John, second Earl Spencer and his wife, Lavinia (Bingham), daughter of Lord Lucan. Christened George, he was educated at Eton and Cambridge before entering the Anglican ministry and taking charge of St Mary’s, Brington on the family’s Althorp estate. In 1830, after conversations with Father W. Foley of Northampton and further discussions with Ambrose Phillips in Grace Dieu, George was received into the Catholic Church. He then went to study for the priesthood at the English College in Rome, where he first met Blessed Dominic Barberi. Ordained on the feast of St Augustine of Canterbury, 26 May 1832, in the Church of St Gregory the Great, Father George Spencer returned to England with the Blessing of Pope Gregory XVI. In August 1832 he was appointed curate in Walsall and in November parish priest of West Bromwich, with responsibility also for Dudley. In 1839, however, he became ill and had to go to the Continent for a change of air. While he was there, he was invited to address the French clergy at St Sulpice. As a result, about seventy priests undertook to pray for the conversion of England and to offer Mass for that intention on the first Thursday of every month. Thus, almost accidentally, he founded his Crusade of Prayer for the Conversion of England, which was to become his life’s work.
 

After his return, he was sent to Oscott College as Spiritual Director and then, in December 1846, he entered the Passionist novitiate at Aston Hall. From his Profession of Vows in 1848 he was indefatigable in giving missions and retreats all over the British Isles, throughout Ireland and on the Continent, always combining them with his Crusade of Prayer for England and with the Temperance Movement.

In 1849 he worked with Blessed Dominic Barberi and John Smith to make a Passionist foundation in Sutton, St Helen’s and when Blessed Dominic died later that year Father Ignatius succeeded him as Provincial. In that capacity he shared in the Founding of the Sisters of the Cross and Passion with his fellow-Passionist, Father Gaudentius Rossi and Elizabeth Prout, later known as Mother Mary Joseph and in 1863 he was instrumental in obtaining their first approbation from the Holy See.

On 24 December 1850 Father Ignatius Spencer celebrated the first Mass, the Christmas Midnight Mass in St Anne’s Church, Sutton and in 1863 he became the Rector. Apart from those times when he was unavoidably absent, preaching missions and retreats and unobtrusively questing for much needed funds, Father Ignatius was utterly devoted to St Anne’s Parish, spending himself in preaching, organizing a highly devotional life in the parish with Blessed Sacrament and Rosary Processions and visiting the people, not only in Sutton itself but also in Irish Row, Peasley Cross and Burtonwood.

In August 1864, however, he had to leave Sutton to preach missions in Scotland. He had given a mission in Coatbridge and was on his way to Leith, when, on 1 October, he died of a heart attack at Carstairs, near Lanark. His remains were brought back to Sutton and buried in the crypt. In 1973 they were re-interred in Blessed Dominic’s Shrine in the Church of St Anne and Blessed Dominic and it was there that on 7 July 1992 the Cause for his ultimate Canonization was opened by His Grace, Archbishop Derek Worlock of Liverpool.