A Brazilian soccer-loving monk is the oldest person in the world at around 117

A Brazilian soccer-loving woman is believed to be the oldest person in the world at 117 years old the latest death of a Japanese woman.

Sister Inah Canabarro was so thin growing up that many didn’t think she would survive childhood, Cleber Canabarro, her 84-year-old nephew, told The Associated Press.

LongeviQuest, an organization that tracks centenarians around the world, released a statement on Saturday announcing a wheelchair-bound monk as the world’s oldest person whose life records were confirmed at a young age.

In a video shot by the organization last February, a smiling Canabarro can be seen cracking jokes, sharing small drawings he often made of wildflowers and saying the Hail Mary prayer.

The secret to longevity? He says his religion is Catholic.

“I am young, beautiful and friendly – all the best, the best qualities you have,” the Teresian monk tells visitors at his retirement home in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre.

His nephew spends time with him every Saturday and texts him during visits to keep him healthy following two hospitalizations that have left him weak, speechless.

“Some of the sisters say that he trembles when he hears my voice,” he said. “He’s happy.”

Canabarro was born on June 8, 1908 to a large family in southern Brazil, according to LongeviQuest researchers. But his nephew said his birth was registered two weeks later and he was actually born on May 27. His great-grandfather was a famous Brazilian general who took up arms during the turbulent period after Brazil’s independence from Portugal in the 19th century.

He began religious work at a young age and spent two years in Montevideo, Uruguay, before moving to Rio de Janeiro and finally settling in his native Rio Grande do Sul. A teacher all his life, among his former students was Gen. Joao Figueiredo, the last of the military dictators who ruled Brazil between 1964 and 1985. He was also the beloved creator of two marching bands in schools in sister cities across the border of Uruguay and Brazil. .

On his 110th birthday, he was honored by Pope Francis. She is the second greatest nun ever written, after that Lucile Randonwho was the oldest person in the world until his death in 2023 at the age of 118.

Local football club Inter – founded after Canabarro’s birth – celebrates the birthday of its oldest fan every year. His room is decorated with gifts in the team’s red and white colors, his nephew said.

“White or black, rich or poor, whoever you are, Inter is a people’s club,” he said in one video posted on social media to celebrate his 116th birthday with the club’s president.

Canabarro took the title of oldest living person following the death of Japan’s Tomiko Itooka in December, according to LongeviQuest. She is now ranked as the 20th oldest person to have ever lived, topped by French woman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122, according to LongeviQuest.