María Branyas, the oldest living person in the world, celebrates her 117th birthday in Spain

Catalan woman María Branyas, the oldest living person in the world following the death in January 2023 of the French nun Lucile Random at the age of 118, turned 117 this Monday, 4 March, in Olot (Gerona) in the north of Spain.

The American-born Spanish supercentenarian has some mobility and hearing issues, but her biological age is described as "much younger". María has lived in a senior's residence in Santa Maria del Tura in Olot for more than two decades. She was born on 4 March 1907 in San Francisco to Catalan parents and Maria is the oldest person in the world by just a few days, ahead of Fusa Tatsumi in Japan.

This is confirmed by the Gerontology Research Group ranking, an organisation founded in 1990 at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) that promotes the exchange and application of knowledge in scientific research and is associated with the Guinness World Records.

At the seniors' residence, where she overcame Covid in 2020 at the age of 113, her family visited her with a birthday cake and fellow residents gave her a gift to celebrate the occasion, her daughter, Rosa Moret, explained.

María has a social media profile on X, called Super Àvia Catalana, which is managed by her family, on which she publishes her reflections. "Good morning World. Today I turn 117 years old. "I have come this far," she shared this Monday.