FEATURE

French nun named world’s oldest person at 118 years, 73 days old

Guinness World Records announced a French nun officially became the world’s oldest person living at the age of 118 years and 73 days old.

Guinness said Sister Andre, a nun born Lucile Randon on Feb. 11, 1904, was officially dubbed the oldest living person following the death of Japanese woman Kane Tanaka at the age of 119 years and 107 days old.

Sister Andre, who took her name after becoming a Catholic nun in 1944, was also awarded the title of world’s oldest nun by Guinness. She is the second-oldest French person ever and third-oldest European on record.

The nun, who is partially deaf and uses a wheelchair, said she still tries to keep her mind active.

“They get me up at 7 a.m., they give me my breakfast, then they put me at my desk where I stay busy with little things,” Sister Andre told Guinness World Records.

Staff at Sister Andre’s retirement home said she is still given a glass of wine each day.

Previously the person deemed the world’s oldest by the International Database on Longevity (IDL) and Guinness World Records was Kane Tanaka, whose death in Japan on April 19 was announced Monday.

The world's certified oldest person Kane Tanaka died at the age of 119 in Fukuoka, Japan. She was born in 1903

The world’s certified oldest person Kane Tanaka died at the age of 119 in Fukuoka, Japan. She was born in 1903

With her death, ‘Sister Andre indeed becomes the oldest, and by far, since the next oldest is a Polish woman who is 115,’ said Laurent Toussaint, a computer scientist and amateur tracker for the IDL as well as the French institute of demographic studies (INED)

The oldest person ever, fellow Frenchwoman Jeanne Louise Calment, was born in 1875 and died at the age of 122 years and 164 days old.

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