A soccer-loving Brazilian nun is the world’s oldest person at nearly 117 years old

A soccer-loving Brazilian nun is believed to have become the world’s oldest person at the age of 117 after… A woman from Japan recently died.

Sister Ina Kanabaro was so thin growing up that many did not think she would survive childhood, Kleber Kanabaro, her 84-year-old nephew, told The Associated Press.

LongeviQuest, an organization that tracks centenarians around the world, issued a statement on Saturday declaring that the wheelchair-bound nun is the world’s oldest person verified through early life records.

In a video filmed by the organization last February, Kanabaru can be seen smiling as she makes jokes, shares miniature paintings she was making of wildflowers, and recites a Hail Mary prayer.

The secret to longevity? She says her faith is Catholic.

“I am young, beautiful and friendly, and all the good and positive qualities you have too,” Sister Theresia tells visitors to a nursing home in the city of Porto Alegre in southern Brazil.

Her nephew spends time with her every Saturday and sends her voice messages between visits to keep her spirits up after two hospitalizations left her weak and having difficulty speaking.

“The other sisters say they get shocked when they hear my voice,” he says. “She’s excited.”

Canabaru was born on June 8, 1908, into a large family in southern Brazil, according to LongeviQuest researchers. But her nephew said that her birth was registered two weeks late, and that she was actually born on May 27. Her great-grandfather was a famous Brazilian general who took up arms during the turbulent period following Brazil’s independence from Portugal in the 19th century.

She began religious work as a teenager and spent two years in Montevideo, Uruguay, before moving to Rio de Janeiro and eventually settling in her native state of Rio Grande do Sul. She has been a teacher all her life, and her former students include General João Figueiredo, the last of the military dictators who ruled Brazil between 1964 and 1985. She was also the beloved founder of two school orchestras in sister cities straddling the Uruguay-Brazil border. .

On her 110th birthday, she was honored by Pope Francis. She is the second oldest nun ever documented, after Lucille RandonShe was the oldest person in the world until her death in 2023 at the age of 118.

Local football club Inter – founded after Canabaru’s birth – celebrates the birthday of its biggest fan every year. Her room is decorated with red and white team gifts, her nephew says.

“Black or white, rich or poor, whoever you are, Inter is the people’s team,” she said in one of them. Video posted on social media She celebrates her 116th birthday with the club president.

Kanabaru was named the oldest living person after the death of Japanese Tomiko Itoka last December, according to the LongeviQuest website. She now ranks as the 20th oldest person to have ever lived, a list topped by French woman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122, according to LongeviQuest.