A football-loving nun from the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul has turn into the oldest person on the planet after the death of Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka aged 116.
Sister Inah Canabarro, who was born on 8 June 1908 making her 116, is currently ranked the twentieth oldest person to have ever lived, with France’s Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 on the age of 122, at primary.
LongeviQuest, an organisation tracking supercentenarians across the globe, said her milestone had been validated by formative years records. Early last yr, they shared a video showing Sister Inah cracking jokes, reciting the Hail Mary prayer, and sharing the miniature paintings of wildflowers that were once her hobby.
“I’m young, pretty and friendly – all superb, positive qualities that you’ve too,” she told visitors to her retirement home within the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre.
The devout nun, who had once been so thin and weak that her parents had not expected her to survive, credits her long life to her faith in God.
“My secret, my great secret, is to wish,” Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas said early last yr in an interview with ACI Digital, CNA’s Portuguese-language news partner. “I pray the rosary on daily basis for all of the people world wide.”
Born Inah Canabarro Lucas within the São Francisco de Assis district of inner Rio Grande do Sul state, Sister Inah was the sixth of seven children.
“Her godfather at the moment told her father: ‘Friend, do not get me incorrect, but this girl should be sick and prepare because unfortunately I do not think she’s going to last long’,” Kléber Canabarro Lucas, 83, the nun’s nephew, said.
“They’re all gone, and he or she is already 116 years old!”
Cleber said he believed that it was her spirituality that had sustained her.
“Sister Inah is our pinnacle by way of religiosity, faith, goodwill, a sort and good-humoured person; she has been like that every one her life.”
Her vocation dates back to her childhood when she heard in regards to the likelihood to check at a convent in her town. Asking her mother, “What are nuns?”, she was told that they were women who dedicated themselves to praying to God. Her reply? “I’m going to be a nun.”
Sister Inah studied on the convent until she was 19, when she went for her novitiate with the Teresian Sisters in Montevideo, Uruguay. Dedicating her life to teaching, Sister Inah taught Portuguese, mathematics, science, history, art, and religion in Teresian schools, also helping establish marching bands at Santa Teresa school in Sant’Ana do Livramento and the Pomoli Institute in Rivera, Uruguay.
Alongside her faith, there was one other constant that has endured, her passion for football. While her local club Inter celebrates her birthday every yr with a cake, it’s Sport Clube Internacional that has been in her life the longest, founded in 1909 when she was one yr old.
Asked why she supported them, she told ACI Digital, “Because it is the team of the people, good people, poor, very upright, superb.”
But, they’re rare constants in a life that has seen infinite change, taking in two World Wars and 10 popes. Born when St Pius X was still pontiff and living to be honoured by Pope Francis on her a hundred and tenth birthday, Sister Inah is the second oldest nun ever documented.
She can also be considered one of few nuns in her congregation who still wears her habit despite it becoming optional on the Second Vatican Council of 1963–1965. Her faith stays steadfast and most of the sisters were her students or have a story about how Sister Inah helped them discover their vocation.
“I feel very completely satisfied, very grateful to God since it was [Sister Inah] who guided me along this path and now I might be useful to her, help her within the moments when she needs me,” said Sister Velmira, her carer.
For Sister Teresinha de Aragón, 83, who has known her since childhood, Sister Inah’s life is definitely summed up.
“She is super completely satisfied, a one that has life, has love, truly loves.”
