The origin of the spin glass (SG) phase in the well-known multiferroic Pb(Fe 1/2 Nb 1/2)O 3 compound remains controversial due to the complications introduced by the coexistence of SG and long-range ordered (LRO) antiferromagnetic (AFM) phases. We have addressed this controversy through a comprehensive study on a Pb-free system Ca(Fe 1/2 Nb 1/2)O 3 (CFN) which does not exhibit LRO AFM transition. The SG transition in CFN is confirmed by the appearance of a cusp in the temperature dependence of dc magnetization M(T) with a SG freezing temperature T f ∼ 25 K, and bifurcation of the zero-field-cooled and field-cooled magnetization M(T) below the irreversibility temperature T irr ∼ 27 K. Using ac susceptibility [χ (ω, T)] measurements, we show that the spin dynamics follows power/Vogel-Fulcher law-type critical dynamics which diverges at T SG ∼ 24 K with an attempt time τ o ∼ 10 −6 s suggesting cluster spin glass (CSG) behavior. The field dependence of T f (H) and T irr (H) is shown to follow the de Almeida-Thouless line which separates the ergodic and nonergodic phases in the H-T plane and gives T f (H = 0) ∼ 25 K, which is in close agreement with T SG obtained from χ (ω, T). The existence of the glassy phase below T SG is further confirmed by the observation of slow nonexponential decay of thermoremanent magnetization with time, memory and rejuvenation effects, and unidirectional exchange-bias effect in the M-H hysteresis loop of field-cooled samples. The neutron powder-diffraction patterns reveal the absence of any magnetic peak due to LRO AFM phase but show a broad diffuse peak due to the presence of ∼ 2-nm-size AFM spin clusters which are responsible for the CSG freezing in CFN.