Maria Branyas, world's oldest person, dies aged 117

Maria Branyas, the world's oldest person, passed away on Monday aged 117 years.

The Catalan, born in San Francisco on March 4, 1907, had been living in the nursing home Santa Maria del Tura in the northern Catalan town of Olot for the last two decades.

Last month, Branyas became the 8th longest-lived person in history according to the Gerontology Research Group (GRG), which supervises the Guinness Oldest People list.

She became the oldest person in the world on January 17, 2023, when French Luciple Randon passed away, aged 118. 

Memories of First World War 

Born on March 4, 1907, to a Catalan family in San Francisco, California, Branyas moved to Catalonia as a young child and has memories dating far back to World War I as well as the Spanish Civil War.

When her mother decided to return to Catalonia with her family including 7-year-old Maria, the world was at war. It was 1914, and in an interview with Catalan News in 2019, Branyas still remembered their long journey by ship.

“We came here on a boat. Because of the war, Germany was still attacking the North, and you couldn’t go through the northern seas, but we could go further down, through the Azores and Cuba,” she said. “In 1914 I was already a bit aware [of what was happening],” Branyas adds in a slow, but firm tone.  

Indeed, she recalled both world wars: “They were very harmful in Europe, but they also brought some advances.”

She also had fresh memories of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). “I have very bad memories of it, some people rose up and started to commit atrocities when no one was talking about it.”

Many years later, in May 2020, Branyas became the oldest known person to survive Covid-19 at the age of 113.

San Francisco commemoration

San Francisco's Board of Supervisors has officially commended Catalan Maria Branyas, the world's oldest known living person, aged 116 years and 249 days. 

Branyas has been living in a nursing home in Olot since 2000, when she was transferred after contracting pneumonia. There, she thrives as "an active and engaged resident, continuing to perform exercises until her deteriorated mobility," the text reads. 

The resolution read by the speaker of the board, Aaron Peskin, on Tuesday also declares November 7, 2023 as 'Maria Branyas Day' in the city and local county.

The text also praises all that the Catalan woman "has to teach at this critical moment in our planet's history on how to live with integrity, love, humanity, and hope."

At her age, Branyas "continues to inspire the world with her longevity, perseverance, good humor, quick wit, vast institutional knowledge, verve and deep wisdom earned from a life well-lived," the text reads. 

Podcast 

Listen to the podcast below to learn more about Maria's life, recorded to mark her 116th birthday last year and revisiting an interview with Maria from 2019.