MIAMI — A soccer-loving nun from Brazil is believed to have become the world’s oldest person, aged almost 117. A Japanese woman died recently.
Sister Inah Canabarro growing up so thin, many didn’t think he would survive infancy, said LongeviQuest, an organization that tracks supercentenarians around the world.
The group released a statement on Saturday declaring the wheelchair-bound nun to be the world’s oldest person validated by the first living records.
In a video recorded by the organization last February, a smiling Canabarro can be seen cracking jokes, sharing miniature paintings he made with wild flowers and reciting the Hail Mary prayer.
The secret to longevity? His Catholic faith, he says.
“I am young, pretty and kind, very good, you also have positive qualities,” the Teresian nun told visitors to her retirement home in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre.
Canabarro was born on June 8, 1908 to a large family in southern Brazil, according to LongeviQuest. His great-grandfather was a famous Brazilian general, Brazil’s 19th century leader.
He was still a teenager in religious work and spent two years in Montevideo, Uruguay before moving to Rio de Janeiro and eventually closer to home in southern Brazil.
On his 110th birthday, Pope Francis honored him. She is the second oldest nun ever documented Lucille RandonHe was the oldest person in the world until he died in 2023 at the age of 118.
Local soccer club Inter — which was founded after Canabarro’s birth — celebrates the birthday of its oldest fan every year with a cake and balloon in the team’s red and crimson colors.
“White or black, rich or poor, whoever you are, Inter is the people’s team,” says one. video posted on social networks celebrating his 116th birthday with the club president.
Canabarro took the title of oldest living after the death of Japan’s Tomiko Itooka in December, according to LongeviQuest. She currently ranks as the 20th oldest person to have ever lived, ranking second to Jeanne Calment of France, who died in 1997 at the age of 122, according to LongeviQuest.
