Maria Branyas Morera, the world’s oldest person, died Monday at a senior living facility in Barcelona at age 117.
Morera’s age and death were confirmed by her family and Guinness World Records. At 117 years and 168 days, she was the eighth longest-lived person in recorded history, according to Guinness.
“Maria Branyas has left us. She died as she wished: in her sleep, peacefully and without pain,” her family wrote on her X account. “We will always remember her for her advice and her kindness.”
Branyas became the world’s oldest person in January 2023 with the death of French nun Lucile Randon, who was known as Sister Andre. Randon was 118 years old when she passed away.
Born March 4, 1907, in San Francisco, Branyas survived two pandemics and two World Wars, including one that she sailed through in 1915. Branyas’ parents were from Spain, but they moved to the U.S. one year before she was born.
But in 1915, despite the outbreak of war in Europe, the family sailed back to Spain across the Atlantic Ocean. On the journey, Branyas’ father died from pulmonary tuberculosis.
Branyas went on to live nearly all of her life in Spain, marrying Dr. Joan Moret when she was 24 years old. Moret and Branyas had three children together. Moret died in 1976.
Late in life, Branyas achieved another milestone when she became one of the oldest people to contract COVID-19 and survive. She was briefly the oldest person to have done so, before Randon also survived the virus.
Branyas attributed her long life to “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.”
With her death, 116-year-old Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka is now the world’s oldest living person, according to the Gerontology Research Group.
