Ignatius Spencer - Death and Cause For Beatification

Death and Cause For Beatification

Father Ignatius’ health had always been precarious at best and worn out with continual work, preaching and begging he suffered a heart attack and died alone in a ditch (the death he had often described as ideal for himself) on 1 October 1864. He was buried alongside Dominic Barberi and Elizabeth Prout in St. Anne’s, Sutton, St. Helens on October 4 and now rests in the shrine church there. When his body was exhumed in 1973 it was noted that Father Ignatius suffered from horrific arthritis, but that his tongue had not suffered any decay since the day of his death.

In March 2007, the Church announced that the first stage of Father Ignatius’ cause for beatification had been completed and that all the necessary documents had been forwarded to Rome. The next step in this process would be a declaration from the Holy See that Father Ignatius could be styled ‘Venerable’; on December 6, 2010, the BBC reported that the Vatican has made such a declaration.