Priest, related to British royal family, moves closer to canonization

LONDON (CNS) -- The British royal family could soon have its first saint after the Catholic Church took a step forward in the canonization process of a priest related to Princes William and Harry.

An inquiry into the possible sainthood of Father Ignatius Spencer was sent to the Congregation for Saints' Causes March 1 after an exhaustive 12-year investigation by British Catholic officials.

A tribunal in the Archdiocese of Liverpool, England, concluded Feb. 26 that there was nothing in either the work or 22 volumes of writings by Father Spencer to suggested he did not live a life of heroic virtue.

The first step in the canonization process is the declaration of a person's heroic virtues then beatification. In general, the church must confirm two miracles through the intercession of the sainthood candidate before canonization.

"The next stage is to hope and pray for a miracle that can be attributed to the intercession of Ignatius," said Passionist Father Ben Lodge, the postulator of the cause from Kent, England, in an interview with Catholic News Service March 2.

Father Spencer is related to the princes through their mother, Princess Diana of Wales.

Born in Admiralty House in 1799, he was the great-great-great-uncle of Princess Diana and was also the great-uncle of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Father Spencer grew up at the family home in Althorp, where Princess Diana was buried after she was killed in a Paris car crash in August 1997.

But he turned his back on a life of immense wealth and comfort when he converted to Catholicism -- a move which shocked his contemporaries. He joined the newly formed Passionists, changed his name from George to Ignatius, and worked for the conversion of England to the Catholic faith until his death in 1864.

"He gave up being a member of one of the wealthiest families in the country in which he had a massive income and ended up going out to Ireland to work with the victims of the potato famine," said Father Lodge.

Father Lodge said Father Spencer was about 150 years ahead of his time in his commitment to the "unity in truth" of all Christians, a theme later embraced by the Second Vatican Council. Father Spencer's greatest achievement was "preparing the ground" for the ecumenical movement of the late 20th century, Father Lodge added.

Father Spencer's other great love was cricket, a sport which he described as "my mania," and he often organized matches among seminarians while he was the dean of St. Mary's Seminary in Oscott.

Father Spencer's body is entombed in St. Anne's Church in St. Helens alongside Blessed Dominic Barberi, an Italian Passionist priest beatified by Pope Paul VI in 1963.

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

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 Phillipps 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, organising 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 Canonisation was opened by His Grace, Archbishop Derek Worlock of Liverpool.

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