The Virgin had herself appeared to her, she said, and had fixed a day for her appearance there, and had promised that on her obedience she would present herself in person and take away her disorder.[321] The day came; and as (under the circumstances) there was no danger of failure, the holy fathers had collected a vast concourse of people to witness the marvel.  The girl was conducted to the chapel by a procession of more than two thousand persons, headed by the monk, the clergyman, and many other religious persons, the whole multitude “singing the Litany and saying divers psalms and orations by the way.”

“And when she was brought thither[322] and laid before the image of our Lady, her face was wonderfully disfigured, her tongue hanging out, and her eyes being in a manner plucked out and laid upon her cheeks, and so greatly deformed.  There was then heard a voice speaking within her belly, as it had been in a tonne, her lips not greatly moving:  she all that while continuing by the space of three hours or more in a trance.  The which voice, when it told of anything of the joys of heaven, spake so sweetly and so heavenly, that every man was ravished with the hearing thereof; and contrarywise, when it told anything of hell, it spake so horribly and terribly, that it put the hearers in a great fear.  It spake also many things for the confirmation of pilgrimages and trentals, hearing of masses and confession, and many other such things.  And after she had lyen there a long time, she came to herself again, and was perfectly whole.  So this miracle was finished and solemnly sung; and a book was written of all the whole story thereof, and put into print; which ever since that time was commonly sold, and went abroad among the people.”

The miracle successfully accomplished, the residence at Aldington was no longer adapted for an acknowledged and favoured saint.  The Virgin informed her that she was to leave the bailiff and devote herself to her exclusive service.  She was to be Sister Elizabeth, and her especial favourite; and Father Bocking was to be her spiritual father.  The priory of St. Sepulchre’s, Canterbury, was chosen for the place of her profession; and as soon as she was established in her cell, she became a recognised priestess or prophetess, alternately communicating revelations, or indulging the curiosity of foolish persons, and for both services consenting to be paid.  The church had by this time spread her reputation through England.  The book of her oracles, which extended soon to a considerable volume, was shown by Archbishop Warham to the king, who sent it to Sir Thomas More, desiring him to look at it.  More’s good sense had not yet forsaken him; he pronounced it “a right poor production, such as any simple woman might speak of her own wit;"[323] and Henry himself “esteemed the matter as light as it afterwards proved lewd.”  But the world were less critical censors:  the saintly halo was round her head, and her most trivial