World’s Oldest Person — Nun Inah Canabarro Lucas — Dies at 116
The year she was born, St. Pius X was pope, and she lived to see this past Saturday’s funeral of Pope Francis.
The oldest person in the world, Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas, has died.
Born in 1908 in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, she once said it was her relationship with God that kept her going all these years. “He is the secret of life. He is the secret of everything.”
In March 2024, Sister Inah told ACI Digital that one of the secrets of her longevity is prayer: “I pray the Rosary every day for everyone in the world.”
In January, she became the oldest person in the world, following the death of Japan’s Tomiko Itooka, as confirmed by LongeviQuest, a group of researchers specializing in mapping people who are over 100 years old.
Sister Inah died April 30.
Living such a long time had become a celebrated fact of her entire family. “It’s a source of great pride for the Canabarro Lucas family,” her nephew Cleber Vieira Canabarro Lucas, 84, told ACI Digital, CNA’s Portuguese-language news partner, on Jan. 6.
Sister Inah’s longevity is due to her spirituality, Cleber said, since “she was always a little nun who prayed a lot, prayed a lot; she dedicated herself to prayer all her life.” He also spoke of other characteristics, such as “her kindness in always wanting to do good to others, her good humor typical of her personality, her optimism, and her determination in life.”
Inah Canabarro Lucas, born the second to last of seven children, was a fragile child.
According to Cleber, “they were all well fed, they were normal, and she was very thin, weak, and her godfather at that time told her father: ‘Friend, don’t get me wrong, but this girl must be sick and get ready because unfortunately I don’t think she will last long.’ ... They’re all gone, and she is 116 years old!”
Sister Inah began religious life with the Teresian Sisters of Brazil at the young age of 19, in 1927.
As a young girl, she was told by one of her siblings that she could study at a convent school in her city, prompting the young girl to ask: “What are nuns?” Her mother told her they are women who live dedicated to God and pray to him. And that is when little Inah knew her vocation: “I’m going to be a nun.”
She went on to study at the convent school and began her novitiate with the Teresian sisters in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Over the course of more than a century, she experienced numerous changes in the world and in the Church. The nun lived through two world wars and 10 popes. The year she was born, St. Pius X was pope, and she lived to see this past Saturday’s funeral of Pope Francis.
Marking the milestone of reaching the wise age of 110, Sister Inah was happy to receive an apostolic blessing from the late Pontiff.
As a religious sister in Teresian schools, she taught Portuguese, mathematics, history, art and religion in several cities, including in Rio de Janeiro, Itaqui, and Santana do Livramento, a city where she is much loved because it was where she spent most of her life.
The religious sister was the great-great-niece of Brazilian Gen. David Canabarro, one of the main leaders of the Farroupilha Revolution (1835-1845) in Rio Grande do Sul.
Sister Inah wasn’t the only nun ever documented to be the oldest in the world. Sister André also held the coveted position until her death at the age of 118. The French nun attributed her great longevity to God — and a daily cup of hot cocoa.
Alyssa Murphy Alyssa Murphy is the Register's Managing Editor of Digital Assets. Starting her career on the airwaves in San Francisco, she has worked in all facets of media. Alyssa enjoys writing and covering stories that inspire and uplift. Register readers may be familiar with her voice from EWTN radio's Morning Glory. Alyssa currently lives in New Jersey just outside Manhattan with her husband Andrew and young daughter, Annabelle.
