Oldest living person, age 116, reveals her 'big secret' of a long life

The world’s oldest person — 116-year-old Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas — is sharing her secret of longevity.

Canabarro Lucas became the world’s oldest known living person after the death of Tomiko Itooka, a 116-year-old Japanese woman who died just days before the new year on Dec. 29, 2024.

‘He is the secret of life. He is the secret of everything’

Born on June 8, 1908, Canabarro Lucas was reportedly considered to be “so skinny” as a child that it was believed that she would not survive childhood, according to LongeviQuest, an organization that tracks supercentenarians. But despite the odds, she has lived through two world wars and the COVID-19 pandemic, and she is believed to remain in good health today.

Confirmed in the Catholic Church at age 21, she took her perpetual vows at age 26 and became a nun. Throughout her career, she worked as a teacher, professor, and secretary. She retired in 1995, according to LongeviQuest.

The secret of her longevity? God and her faith.

“He is the secret of life. He is the secret of everything,” she said.

Prayer — and the routine of her life as a nun — helps, too.

“My secret, my big secret, is to pray. I pray the rosary every day for everyone in the whole world,” she said last year.

Sister Lúcia Ignez Bassotto, the coordinator of the Santo Enrique de Ossó Home where Canabarro Lucas currently lives, said that Canabarro Lucas is true to her faith.

Bassotto described Sister Inah as someone who is “always focused on others and not on herself,” calling her “a very resilient person, isn’t demanding, appreciates everything, thinks that everything is fine, has enormous admiration for the congregation, for the company. She prays for everyone; she is concerned for everyone.”

“Her life is truly exemplary,” Bassotto said last year.

Other interesting facts about Canabarro Lucas’ life include the fact that her great-grandfather is famed Brazilian General David Canabarro — a leader in the 19th-century Ragamuffin War — and that she once taught João Figueiredo, who served as Brazil’s president in the 1980s.