English Priest, Fr. Ignatius Spencer, ancestor of Winston Churchill and Diana Princess of Wales, declared Venerable

Spencer, THE HON. GEORGE (in religion, IGNATIUS OF ST. PAUL), Passionist, b. at the Admiralty, London, December 21, 1799; d. at Carstairs, Scotland, October 1, 1864. He was the youngest son of the second Earl Spencer and Lavinia, daughter of Sir Charles Bingham. From Eton he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, received Anglican orders, June 13, 1824, and became chaplain to Bishop Blomfield of Chester, and shortly afterwards rector of Brington, Northampton-shire. In 1830 he became a Catholic and went to Rome for his ecclesiastical studies, being ordained priest there, May 26, 1832. He returned to England fired with zeal for its conversion and labored incessantly to procure the prayers of Catholics on the Continent for that intention. From 1832 to 1839 he worked as priest at West Bromwich, building the church at his own cost; then he was professor at Oscott till 1846, when he entered the Passionist novitiate. He was professed at Aston Hall in January, 1848. He spent the rest of his life in arduous missionary labors as a true apostle for the conversion of England. He translated the life of Blessed Paul of the Cross (London, 1860) and published many sermons. - Edwin Burton at Catholic Answers

(A) close examination of the early history of the Church led him to decide to enter the Roman Catholic Church in 1830, with the loss of an annual income of £3,000. His journey of faith was very similar to that of his contemporary St John Henry Newman. - St. Helens Star

On becoming a Roman Catholic priest, Father Spencer was attracted to the Passionist congregation - a religious congregation which lived a life of radical poverty. He became noted as a preacher who was equally at home among the aristocracy as he was among the urban poor. He was a forerunner of the drive for better relations between the Roman Catholic Church and other Christian denominations with his desire for "unity in truth". - BBC