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Brazilian Nun Is World’s Oldest Person at 116
Sister Inah Canabarro was born in 1908. She was six years old when The First World War began in 1914.
The soccer-loving nun from Brazil is believed to be the world’s oldest living person at 116 years old.
LongeviQuest is an organization that keeps records of people over 110 years old around the world. It released a statement on Saturday saying that Canabarro is the world’s oldest person having proof of early life records.
LongeviQuest filmed a video of Canabarro last February. Canabarro can be seen smiling, making jokes and sharing small paintings she used to make of wildflowers. The video also shows her saying a Catholic prayer called the Hail Mary.
“I’m young, pretty and friendly — all very good, positive qualities that you have too,” the nun told visitors to her retirement home in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre.
Canabarro says the secret to her long life is her Catholic religious belief.
Cleber Canabarro is her 84-year-old nephew. He told The Associated Press that Sister Inah was so thin during childhood that many people worried that she would not live to be an adult.
Her nephew spends time with her every Saturday. He has been sending her voice messages between visits to help her feel better following two visits to the hospital that left her weak, with difficulty talking.
“The other sisters say she gets a jolt when she hears my voice,” he said. “She gets excited.”
LongeviQuest researchers say Canabarro was born on June 8, 1908, to a large family in southern Brazil. But her nephew said her birth was registered two weeks late and she was actually born on May 27.
She started religious work when she was a teenager. She spent two years in Montevideo, Uruguay, before moving to Rio de Janeiro. She later settled in her home state of Rio Grande do Sul. Canabarro taught school for most of her life. One of her students was General João Figueiredo, a military leader and politician who served as the 30th president of Brazil from 1979 to 1985.
Sister Inah also started two marching bands at schools in two cities sharing the border between Uruguay and Brazil.
Pope Francis honored Canabarro for her 110th birthday. She is the second-oldest nun ever known, after Lucile Randon of France, who was the world’s oldest person until her death in 2023 at the age of 118.
The local soccer club where Canabarro lives is named Inter. The club celebrates the birthday of its oldest fan every year. Her room is decorated with gifts in the team’s red and white colors, her nephew said.
“White or black, rich or poor, whoever you are, Inter is the team of the people,” Canabarro said in one video posted on social media. The video shows her celebrating her 116th birthday with the club’s president.
LongeviQuest said Canabarro became the oldest living person following the death of Japan’s Tomiko Itooka in December. She now ranks as the 20th oldest documented person to have ever lived. The organization says Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122, was the oldest documented person ever.
I’m Andrew Smith
Andrew Smith adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on reporting from The Associated Press.
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Words in This Story
nun –n. a woman who lives in a religious community and usually remains unmarried and serves God
positive –adj. good, uplifting
jolt –n. a sudden release of energy; a surprise that causes sudden increase in attention