Brazilian nun who was world’s oldest person dies at 116

Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas, a soccer-loving nun from Brazil who was believed to be the oldest person in the world and whose longevity had been celebrated by Pope Francis, died Wednesday.

She was 116 years old and would have turned 117 in a few more weeks, according to her religious congregation, the Irmãs Teresianas Brasil, which translates to “Teresian Sisters Brazil.” She had been living at a retirement home in the city of Porto Alegre in southern Brazil.

In a social media post, her congregation gave thanks for her life of service and dedication, and asked the Lord to “welcome her into his infinite love.”

While her sight and hearing diminished toward the end of her life, she avoided surgery until a cataract procedure when she was 106, Sister Rita Fernandes Barbosa, the congregation’s provincial coordinator, told the Brazilian station RBS TV earlier this year.

In January, Guinness World Records declared Canabarro Lucas the world’s oldest living person after the death of Tomiko Itooka, a Japanese woman who was born before the start of World War I and the sinking of the Titanic. She was also 116.

In the year Canabarro Lucas was born, the Model T was introduced by Henry Ford. Insulin had not yet been discovered, and the world’s first demonstration of a television was still several years away.

Canabarro Lucas’ exact birthday has been a source of debate and confusion. A registry had listed it as June 8, 1908, the date recognized by Guinness World Records and LongeviQuest, which keeps a database of supercentenarians, people who are 110 or older.

But her family and friends have said that Canabarro Lucas was born May 27, 1908, in São Francisco de Assis in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. They said that her parents had traveled a great distance and several days to register her birth.

As a child, she was so thin that her parents feared she would not survive, her nephew, Cleber Canabarro, who is in his 80s, told The Associated Press in January. Her great-grandfather was a well-known general who had taken up arms during the turbulent period after Brazil declared independence from Portugal in the 19th century, AP reported.

As a teenager, Canabarro Lucas followed her spiritual calling and then took her vows as a nun in Uruguay before returning to Brazil to teach Portuguese and math.

When Canabarro Lucas turned 110, she received an apostolic blessing from Francis, who died April 21 at 88. She was believed to have been the second oldest nun after Sister André, a French nun who lived through two world wars and the 1918 influenza pandemic and survived COVID-19. She died at 118 in 2023.

Canabarro Lucas’ faith and health were not her only enduring distinctions. She was also known for her allegiance to the soccer team Sport Club Internacional in Porto Alegre, known as Inter, which was founded in 1909, the year after her birth.

For her milestone birthdays, she regularly donned team patches and scarves and was presented with jerseys. The team paid tribute to her on social media.

With Canabarro Lucas’ death, LongeviQuest recognised Ethel Caterham, a British woman from Surrey, England, as the oldest person in the world.

So how did Canabarro Lucas reach 116? Her Catholic faith, she told AP.

“I’m young, pretty and friendly,” she said, “all very good, positive qualities that you have, too.”