Europe

World’s oldest person, French nun Sister Andre, dies aged 118

Lucile Randon was born in 1904 and became a nun in 1944

Sister Andre at the Saint-Catherine-Laboure nursing home where she lived in Toulon, last year when she became the oldest living person. Photograph: Christophe Simon/Getty Images
Sister Andre at the Saint-Catherine-Laboure nursing home where she lived in Toulon, last year when she became the oldest living person. Photograph: Christophe Simon/Getty Images
Tue Jan 17 2023 - 21:24

French nun Sister Andre, the world’s oldest person, has died at the age of 118 in France, her retirement home said on Tuesday.

Lucile Randon, who took the name of Sister Andre when she joined a Catholic charitable order in 1944, had survived Covid-19 last year.

She was born on February 11th, 1904, and was the world’s oldest living person according to the Gerontology Research Group’s (GRG) World Supercentenarian Rankings List.

She became the oldest verified person on the death of Kane Tanaka, a Japanese woman who died aged 119 in April 2022.

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Raised Protestant, she converted to Catholicism at the age of 19 in 1923 and joined the Daughters of Charity in 1944. She worked in several hospitals until her retirement from full-time work in 1979. She was resident in the retirement home since 2009.

“She died at 2am. There is great sadness but she wanted it, it was her desire to join her beloved brother. For her, it’s a release,” a spokesman for the nursing home told Le Parisien.

María Branyas Morera, born in America but resident in Spain, is now the world’s oldest person. She was born in 1907 and is 115 years old. —Reuters