Father Ignatius of St Paul was born in 1799 in the Admiralty in London as Hon. George Spencer, a son of the 2nd Earl of Spencer. He was converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism in 1830 in Rome and ordained into the priesthood in 1832. In 1847 he entered the Passionist Order.
On the death in 1849 of the Blessed Dominic Barberi Father Ignatius became Provincial of the Passionist Congregation in England and Belgium. Father Ignatius spent much of his life working for the conversion of England to the Catholic faith.
He died in 1864 and was buried alongside the Blessed Father Dominic.
The first stage of Father Ignatius’ cause for beatification was completed in 2007 and in 2010 the Vatican announced that Father Ignatius could be styled ‘Venerable’.
Window depicting the Venerable Father Ignatius of St Paul from the shrine where he is buried St. Anne’s, Sutton, St. Helens