Brazilian nun who lived to be 116 years old passed away: Brasília: Nun Inah Canabarro Lucas died Wednesday at age 116 to become the world’s oldest person ever and she survived only infancy before crediting her life span to God and her order according to two longevity trackers.
The US Gerontological Research Group (GRG) and the LongeviQuest database report that Ethel Caterham from Surrey, England has become the oldest person in the world at the age of 115.
The world’s oldest person title was claimed by Canabarro after the passing of Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka who had reached the age of 116.
The Congregation of Teresian Sisters of Brazil in Porto Alegre released a statement announcing Canabarro’s death and expressed gratitude for her “dedication and devotion”.
At age 26, she joined the religious life as a nun in 1934 which was between the two major World Wars.
Canabarro had attributed her longevity to God, saying: “He is the secret of life. LongeviQuest reports that he holds the secret to everything.
She got a blessing from Pope Francis for her 110th birthday before he passed away last Monday at age 88.
GRG director Robert Young told AFP in January that official records show her birth date as June 8, 1908 instead of the May 27, 1908 date she had claimed.
LongeviQuest announced that Canabarro was the fifteenth oldest person ever recorded and ranked as the second longest-lived nun behind France’s Lucile Randon who reached 118 years of age before passing in 2023.
