World’s oldest person dies age 117

The world's oldest person has died at the grand old age of 117.

Maria Branyas, an American-born Spaniard believed to be the world’s oldest person at 117, has died, her family said on Tuesday (August 20).

In a post on Ms Branyas’s account on Twitter, 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.

"We will always remember her for her advice and her kindness."

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

María Branyas Morera has died at the age of 117. (Guinness World Records)

Ms Branyas was born in San Francisco on March 4, 1907, before her family returned to Spain when she was young.

At the time of her death she was living in the Residència Santa María del Tura nursing home in the Catalan town of Olot - where she had called home since 2000.

Ms Branyas took the title on January 17 when Randon, who was known as Sister Andre, died at the age of 118 years and 340 days - with the Guinness Book of World Records acknowledging her title.

Speaking to a local media outlet Catalan News in 2019, she explained that she moved from San Francisco to Catalonia, Spain, in 1914 by boat - during the first World War.

She said: “We came here on a boat. Because of the war, Germany was still attacking the North, and you couldn’t go through the Nordic seas, but we could go further down through the Azores and Cuba.

Branyas died at a nursing home in Catalonia, Spain. (Guinness World Records)

“In 1914 I was already a bit aware [of what was happening].

Recalling both World Wars, she said: “They were very harmful in Europe, but they also brought some advances.”

She also gave insight into the Spanish Civil War that took place between 1936 and 1939, adding: “I have very bad memories of it, some people rose up and started to commit atrocities when no one was talking about it.”

Branyas was born the same year that the first car was registered in Barcelona.

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

The next oldest person listed by the Gerontology Research Group is Tomiko Itooka, from Japan, who is 116 - and is now the oldest person in the world.

However, the oldest human to ever live - who has been fully authenticated - was Jeanne Louise Calment of France.

She died at the age of 122 years and 164 days back in 1997 on August 4.