In Brazil, the oldest person in the world died – 116-year-old nun Inach Canabarro Lucas. Her death was announced by the Congregation of the Teresian Sisters in Porto Alegre, expressing gratitude for her “devotion and sacrifice” throughout her life. informs Barron’s edition.
Inah Canabarro Lucas became the oldest person on the planet after the death of 116-year-old Japanese woman Tomiko Itoka in January 2025. Guinness World Records officially confirmed her record when she was 116 years and 210 days old. According to data from the US Gerontological Research Group (GRG) and the LongeviQuest database, the title of oldest person now goes to 115-year-old Ethel Cathergham from Surrey, England.
Canabarro was frail as a child, and “many doubted that she would survive.” In 1934, at the age of 26, she became a nun. Inach attributed the secret of her longevity to faith in God. On her 110th birthday, she received a blessing from Pope Francis, who recently died at the age of 88.
Despite the fact that Canabarro herself claimed that she was born on May 27, 1908, the official date of her birth is June 8, 1908. According to LongeviQuest, she was the 15th oldest person in history and the second oldest nun after Sister Lucille Randon of France, who lived 118 years and died in 2023.
The current record holder Ethel Cathergham was born on August 21, 1909 in the village of Shipton Bellinger. She became the oldest resident of Great Britain after the death of 112-year-old Molly Walker on January 22, 2022.
On August 19, 2024, after the death of 117-year-old Maria Branias Morera, Cathergham became the oldest person in Europe. And on April 7, 2025, at the age of 115 years and 229 days, she surpassed the age of Charlotte Hughes (1877–1993), becoming the oldest British woman in history.
Following the recent deaths of Japan’s Okagi Hayashi (April 26) and Brazil’s Ina Canabarro Lucas (April 30), Cathergham remains the only known living person born in 1909. She is also the last British woman born before 1913 and the only living subject of King Edward VII.
