Maria Branyas, believed to be world’s oldest person, dead at 117

MADRID — Maria Branyas, an American-born Spaniard considered the world’s oldest person at 117 years old, has died, her family said on Tuesday.

In a post on Branyas’ X account, her family wrote in Catalan: “Maria Branyas has left us. She has gone the way she wanted: in her sleep, at peace, and without pain.”

The Gerontology Research Group, which validates details of people thought to be 110 or older, listed Branyas as the oldest known person in the world after the death of French nun Lucile Randon last year.

The next oldest person listed by the Gerontology Research Group is now Japan’s Tomiko Itooka, who is 116 years old.

Branyas was born in San Francisco on March 4, 1907. After living for some years in New Orleans, where her father founded a magazine, her family returned to Spain when she was young. Branyas said that she had memories of crossing the Atlantic Ocean during World War I.

Her X account is called “Super Catalan Grandma” and bears the description: “I am old, very old, but not an idiot.”

At age 113, Branyas tested positive for COVID-19 during the global pandemic, but avoided developing severe symptoms that claimed tens of thousands of older Spaniards.

At the time of her death she was living in a nursing home in Catalan town of Olot.

Her family wrote that Branyas told them days before her death: “I don’t know when, but very soon this long journey will come to an end. Death will find me worn down from having lived so much, but I want to meet it with a smile, feeling free and satisfied.”