Christians

All of the persons listed in this post lived to be at least 100 years old.

Jose de Jesus Garcia Ayala: (1910, Mexico - 2014) Roman Catholic bishop.

John the Silent: (452, Armenia - 558) Greek Christian saint. John lived as a hermit for 76 years.

Nguyen Khac Ngu: (1906, Vietnam - 2009) Vietnamese Roman Catholic bishop who was ordained as a priest in 1934.

Herbert George Welch: (1862, New York State, USA - 1969) Methodist bishop and university president (Ohio Wesleyan University). Welch served as a Methodist pastor in Korea, China, and Pennsylvania.

Nicholas Kao Se Tseien: (1897, China - 2007) Chinese Roman Catholic priest known especially for his service in Hong Kong. Oldest known person to ever undergo surgery for cataracts. 

Oldest Person in the United States Dies

Mamie Rearden, of Edgefield, South Carolina (USA) died Wednesday 2 January 2013 at the age of 114.  She was, until her death, the oldest living person in the United States.  Her rapid decline in health came after she fell and broke her hip.

Mamie Rearden, a schoolteacher and homemaker, was born on 7 September 1898.   She had eleven children, ten of whom survive her.

When asked her opinion of a local preacher’s very boring sermon she had nothing negative to say because, as she said, “Well, it came from the Bible.”

Mrs. Rearden was not the oldest person on Earth.  That honor belongs to Jimeron Kimura of Japan, who is 115.