ABSTRACT
In 1525 a 16-year-old woman from Kent named Elizabeth Barton fell victim to some kind of hysterical illness. In the midst of one dramatic seizure she had a vision of the Virgin Mary who promised to heal the young woman. When a crowd witnessed the miraculous cure, a star was born. Many were convinced that Barton was a genuine mystic, but when she began to receive and pass on messages from the Virgin Mary which were critical of the king’s determination to secure an annulment, she became more than a curiosity. Her celebrity gained her access to the powerful. On one occasion she even spoke directly to the king claiming that he would be dead inside a month if he were to divorce Catherine and marry Anne.
