World’s Oldest Person, Maria Branyas Morera, Passes Away Aged 117

The oldest known person in the world, Maria Branyas Morera, has passed away at the age of 117.

Branyas was born in the US in 1907 and lived through two world wars. 

She had spent the past two decades in the Santa Maria del Tura nursing home in the town of Olot, Girona, north-eastern Spain.

“Maria Branyas has left us. She died as she wished: in her sleep, peacefully and without pain,” her family wrote on her account on X, which is run by her son-in-law, on Tuesday (August 20).

“We will always remember her for her advice and her kindness.”

Spain’s Maria Branyas Morera, the oldest known person in the world, has died at the age of 117

Image credits: MariaBranyas112

Branyas had said that she felt weak in the months before her death. “The time is near. Don’t cry. I don’t like tears. And above all, don’t suffer for me. Wherever I go, I will be happy. Death will find me worn out from having lived so long, but I want it to find me smiling, free, and satisfied.”

According to the US Gerontology Research Group, the oldest person in the world is now Japan’s Tomiko Itooka, who was born on May 23, 1908, and is 116.

Guinness World Records named Branyas as the world’s oldest living person in January 2023 after the death of the French nun Lucile Randon, who passed away aged 118.

Branyas was born in San Francisco in 1907 and later moved to her family’s native Spain

Maria Branyas Morera is the supercentenarian who, at the age of 117 years, 73 days, became the world’s oldest verified living person since the death of Lucile Randon (1904–2023).

There are some of her photos across two centuries.pic.twitter.com/R0ty3B5oEG

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) May 16, 2024

Branyas told Guinness World Records she believed the keys to her longevity were “order, tranquility, good connection with family and friends, contact with nature, emotional stability, no worries, no regrets, lots of positivity, and staying away from toxic people.”

“I think longevity is also about being lucky.”

Her youngest daughter, Rosa Moret, believes genetics played a part in her mother living long enough to blow out 117 candles. “She has never gone to the hospital, she has never broken any bones, she is fine, she has no pain,” Moret told regional Catalan television in 2023.

But a good diet also helped, she added. “When she cooked at home, there were always vegetables at night or a Spanish tortilla. Whatever it was, it had to be a Mediterranean diet.”

She believed the keys to her longevity were “order, good connection with family and friends, contact with nature,” and “staying away from toxic people”

El passat mes d’agost em vaig acomiadar de la Fada, pensant que ja no la veuria més. Ella havia de ser mare i jo pensava que no viuria tants mesos. Però aquí estem una altra estona juntes. És reconfortant acariciar el seu pèl amb els meus dits torts i gastats. Ella, com tots 👇 pic.twitter.com/L5OafzuXGm

— Super Àvia Catalana (@MariaBranyas112) March 31, 2024

Banyas, who recovered from COVID-19 in 2020 and used a voice-to-text device to express herself later in life, was born in San Francisco, California, on March 4, 1907. Her family returned to their native Spain in 1915 during the First World War.

Not everyone in her family made it across the Atlantic; Branyas’ father died of tuberculosis during the voyage when she was eight.

She and her mother settled in Barcelona. In 1931, she married Joan, a doctor. The couple had three children, one of whom has died, 11 grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren. Her husband died at the age of 72.

— Super Àvia Catalana (@MariaBranyas112) December 24, 2023

Manel Esteller, part of a team of researchers from the University of Barcelona who studied Branyas’ DNA to determine the causes of her longevity, said her mind was “completely lucid,” and she could even remember episodes from when she was only four years old.

She also had no cardiovascular disease. “The only things she has are mobility and hearing problems. It’s incredible,” Esteller said.