The world’s oldest person, Maria Branyas, has passed away at the age of 117.
Branyas, who was born in San Francisco but lived most of her life in Catalonia, Spain, died on Monday.
She spent the last two decades of her life at the Santa Maria del Tura nursing home in Olot, a town in northern Catalonia.
Born on March 4, 1907, Branyas lived through more than a century of significant historical events. Just last month, she became the 8th longest-lived person in history, according to the Gerontology Research Group, which tracks records for the oldest people.
Branyas became the world’s oldest person on January 17, 2023, after the death of French nun Lucile Randon, who passed away at 118.
Maria Branyas was born to a Catalan family in San Francisco, California. In 1914, during World War I, her family decided to return to Catalonia. Branyas remembered the challenging journey across the Atlantic in an interview in 2019.
“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 recalled. “In 1914 I was already a bit aware [of what was happening],” she added.
Branyas lived through both World Wars and the Spanish Civil War. Reflecting on those times, she said, “They were very harmful in Europe, but they also brought some advances.”
She also shared her painful memories of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), saying, “I have very bad memories of it, some people rose up and started to commit atrocities when no one was talking about it.”
In May 2020, at the age of 113, Branyas became the oldest known person to survive COVID-19, further showing her strength and resilience.
In 2023, when Branyas was 116 years and 249 days old, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors officially recognized her extraordinary life. The resolution praised her as an “active and engaged resident” of her nursing home in Olot, where she participated in exercises until her mobility declined.
The Board of Supervisors also declared November 7, 2023, as ‘Maria Branyas Day’ in San Francisco and the local county.
In the resolution, read by Board Speaker Aaron Peskin, Branyas’s contributions to humanity were highlighted, stating that she “has much to teach at this critical moment in our planet’s history on how to live with integrity, love, humanity, and hope.”
