Joan of Arc said she first began receiving visions at age 13.
During her later trial, Joan described hearing what she understood as divine voices and seeing figures identified with saints. She said these experiences began while she was a girl in Domrémy, before she became involved in the French war effort. The accounts recorded at trial were written down by clerks, giving historians an important, though carefully interpreted, source for her early life.
Joan associated her visions especially with Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret. According to her testimony, the messages gradually urged her to support the dauphin Charles and help France resist the English and their Burgundian allies.
The age 13 refers to the beginning of the visions, not to Joan’s departure for the royal court or her military campaigns. She was several years older when she first met Charles and joined the relief of Orléans in 1429.