Obituary Notice
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Fr. IGNATIUS Spencer (1799-1864) FR IGNATIUS SPENCER CP: (The Honourable George Spencer } 1799 ~- 1864 A Crusader of Prayer for England and Pioneer of Ecumenical Prayer George Spencer was born at Admiralty House, London, on 21st December, 179, the youngest son of the second Earl Spencer, then First Lord of the Admiralty. He is thus the great-great-grand-uncle of Her Royal Highness, Princess Diana, the Princess of Wales. When the Earl resigned his office in the following year, the family went to live at Althorp, the family seat, in Northamptonshire. George went to Eton when he was nine years old and to Cambridge in 1817, where, he took a first class degree in 1820, and later that year took an honorary M.A. With his parents' blessing he decided to take orders in the Church of England and was ordained in 1824. He was given the living of Great Brington and was a most caring pastor. He became increasingly uneasy about the teaching of the Anglican Church and after much prayer and study was received into the Catholic Church in January 1830. Bishop Walsh, Vicar apostolic of the Midlands district, arranged for him to go to the Venerable English College in Rome to study for the priesthood: There he met Nicholas Wiseman. While Wiseman helped George in his preparation for . the priesthood, Spencer helped Wiseman to a wider vision: of the renewal of the faith in England... He was ordained priest on the feast of St Augustine of Canterbury in the Church of St Gregory on the Coelian Hill, from where St Gregory the Great had sent Augustine to England, and from where, more than twelve centuries later, Pominic Barberi - now Blessed - was sent on another mission to England. It was at the Passionist monastery on the same Coelian Hill, not far from the Church of St. Gregory, that George Spencer met Fr Dominic. Thus began a friendship born of a shared passion for England's return to Christian unity that was to climax ‘in a shared religious vocation and close apostolic collaboration later in England itself. George Spencer returned to England and was appointed to the parish of Walsall and West Bromwich. At West Bromwich, through the generosity of his father, he heiped to build a new church and became its parish priest. After seven years of devoted and: fruitful work there, he was sent by his bishop to become spiritual director of the students for the priesthood at Oscott College, Birmingham, a post he held for seven years. Throughout this time he was on fire with his desire for the return of England to Christian Unity. He worked with heroic zeal, journeyed and preached not only in England and Ireland but throughout Europe. Wherever he went he sought the help of people of all social levels - and his background gave him access to the highest - in his ASSOCIATION OF PRAYER AND GOOD WORKS for the conversion of England. His plan for a movement of prayer for Christian unity is recognised as the first significant ecumenical step in the English speaking world.
By 1841 Fr Dominic and the Passionists had been established in England at Aston Hall, near Stone in Staffordshire. With the consent of his bishop, George Spencer was received into the Passionist Congregation, changing his name to Ignatius, as he would henceforth. be known. He then began a new apostolate of preaching parish missions and retreats to religious in England and Ireland and continued his ecumenical work in new ways. In 1849 Fr Dominic died and Fr Ignatius was appointed to succeed him in the government of the Passionist province. At this time, too, he was involved in the guidance of a new religious congregation that eventually became THE CONGREGATION OF THE SISTERS OF THE CROSS AND PASSION. In 1863 he was appointed superior of St Anne's Retreat, the Passionist house in Sutton, St Helens, Lancashire. He died suddenly on ist October 1864 at Carstairs, Scotland, while on a visit between missions to see his friend, Robert Monteith. His body was brought back to Sutton for burial and he lies in the church there beside his friend and fellow Passionist, Dominic Barberi. He had a reputation for sanctity even during his lifetime and within a short time after his death the hope of his canonization was voiced. His first biographer, Fr Pius Devine CP, wrote in 1866: "Favours are said to have been obtained from Heaven through his intercession, since his death; and it is even recorded that miracles have been performed by his relics. These facts have: not been, as yet, sufficiently authenicated for publication; and, therefore, it is judged better not to insert them. We confidently hope that a few years will see him enrolled in the catalogue of saints, as the first English Confessor since the Reformation”. He was not indeed to be the ' first English Confessor since the Reformation’. That honour was to be for his friend, colleague and predecessor, Fr Dominic Barberi, who was beatified on 27th October, 1963 - during the Vatican ‘Council. But it is hoped that, like Domininc, he will one day be raised to the honours of the altar. Fr Ignatius' life was characterized by prayer, penance, humility and poverty, love of the poor and a passionate zeal for souls. To this passionate zeal was joined a profound and gentle charity for those who did not share his own aith ‘He was a crusader of prayer for England and the pioneer of ecumenical prayer. ; The words he uttered on many occasions: "T will not rest until I have found the last man who does not believe in God" form the best summary description of his heroic spirit. ;
Source: Obituary Notices, Provincial Archive, St Joseph's Province. Passionist Congregation.