Maria Branyas, the World’s Oldest Person, Dies in Spain at 117

Maria Branyas, the world’s oldest person, died in a Spanish nursing home at 117 years old, according to her X account and a spokesperson at the home.

Branyas, who was American-born, officially became the world’s oldest person according to the Guinness Book of World Records in January 2023 after Lucile Randon, a French nun who previously held the title, passed away.

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

In a second post, the family said she had told them she would pass away soon. “I don’t know when, but very soon this long journey will come to an end,” she was quoted as saying.

Branyas’ age was verified by Gerontology Research Group, a nonprofit that validates the ages of supercentenarians—those who have lived 110 years or longer.

She was born in 1907 in San Francisco, California but moved to Catalonia in 1915. She married a Catalan doctor named Joan Moret, with whom she had three children. Her husband passed away in 1976 at the age of 86, according to Guinness.

Branyas, who had lived through the 1918-1920 Spanish flu pandemic, gained fame in Spain in May 2020 after she became the oldest person to successfully recover from COVID-19 at the time.

“This pandemic has revealed that older people are the forgotten ones of our society. They fought their whole lives, sacrificed time and their dreams for today’s quality of life. They didn’t deserve to leave the world in this way,” she told the Observer after her recovery.