The world’s oldest person and oldest nun, Inah Canabarro Lucas, has died at the age of 116 years and 326 days.

She was announced as the title holder in January following the death of Japan’s Tomiko Itooka, as confirmed by LongeviQuest.

According to Guinness World Records, which reported the news on its website, Inah passed away on 30 April, as confirmed by LongeviQuest.

She was born on 8 June 1908 in São Francisco de Assis, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and had been so skinny as a child that many didn’t believe she would survive into adulthood.

Little did they know, she’d go on to become the world’s oldest woman and person.

Inah began her religious journey at age 16.

She started studying to become a nun on 27 December 1928 at the Santa Teresa de Jesus boarding school in Santana do Livramento.

She later moved to Montevideo, Uruguay, where she took her vows on 27 July 1934.

After returning to Brazil, she became a Portuguese and mathematics teacher at a school in Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro.

She taught in many places over the years and eventually took a position at the Provincial House in Porto Alegre in 1980.

At 110, Inah was honoured by Pope Francis on her birthday with an apostolic blessing.

She once said the secret to her long life was God: “He is the secret of life. He is the secret of everything.”

Inah was the second-oldest nun ever documented, after Lucile Randon, also known as Sister André, who was the world’s oldest person until she died at 118.

Inah was believed to be the last surviving person born in 1908.