BRAZIL: The Gerontology Research Group honors Inah Canabarro Lucas on her 115th birthday

The Gerontology Research Group is pleased to report that Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas of Brazil has celebrated her 115th birthday in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. On that day, she was visited and honored by Dr. Angelo Jose Goncalves Bos, the newly appointed GRG Correspondent for Brazil, who presented her with special GRG plaque, recognizing her as the Oldest Living Person in South America.

According to the research by the Gerontology Research Group, Inah Canabarro Lucas is the 5th person to reach the age of 115 in South America behind Maria Capovilla of Ecuador (1889-2006), Francisca Celsa dos Santos of Brazil (1904-2021), Antonia da Santa Cruz of Brazil (1905-2022), and Casilda Benegas de Gallego of Paraguay/Argentina (1907-2022).

Inah Canabarro Lucas was born in Sao Francisco de Assis, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil on June 8, 1908. Her parents were Joao Antonio Lucas and Mariana Canabarro Lucas. She is the great-granddaughter of General David Canabarro. Her father died in combat in 1923. Canabarro Lucas studied at the Santa Teresa de Jesus boarding school in Santana do Livramento, Rio Grande do Sul. Around 1928, she moved to Montevideo, Uruguay, where she became a nun. In 1930, she returned to Brazil to teach Portuguese and mathematics at a school in Tijuca, a neighbourhood in Rio de Janeiro. In the early 1940s, she moved back to Santana do Livramento where she worked as a teacher.

Canabarro Lucas currently lives in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, at the age of 115 years, 2 days. At the age of 110, she began having some mobility difficulties and had to start using a walker. On 25 January 2021, at the age of 112, she received her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, making her one of oldest people to receive the vaccine. She credits her longevity to God.

Canabarro Lucas became the oldest validated living person in Brazil following the death of Antonia da Santa Cruz on 23 January 2022. She later became the oldest validated living person in the whole of both South and Latin America following the death of Colombian Sofia Rojas on 30 July 2022.

On January 2, 2022, at the age of 113 years, 208 days, Canabarro Lucas surpassed the age of Luzia Mohrs to become the oldest Brazilian ecclesiastical person ever.

In October 2022, Canabarro Lucas contracted COVID-19 while she was hospitalized, but was later able to recover from the disease in November, making her one of the oldest known survivors of the disease.

Following the death of Lucile Randon on 17 January 2023, Canabarro Lucas became the oldest living nun in the world, as well as the fifth-oldest living person in the world whose age is validated by the GRG, after Maria Branyas Morera, Fusa Tatsumi, Edie Ceccarelli, and Tomiko Itooka.