112-year-old from Long Island becomes world’s oldest nun, gives four words of advice

A soft-spoken yet resolute 112 year-old woman from Long Island, New York, USA officially became the Guinness World Records title holder for oldest nun living, after serving the Catholic Church for over 94 years.

Sister Francis Dominici Piscatella was born in Central Islip, a small pocket of New York’s Long Island, on 20 April 1913. She became the oldest nun after the death of Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas (Brazil, b. 8 June 1908), who passed on 30 April this year, as confirmed by LongeviQuest.

Francis entered the Dominican order when she was 17 years old, becoming a teacher and working in administrative roles until she was 84 – spending 52 years in service of her community and 94 years in service of the church. 

Since she joined the order in 1931, she has witnessed nine Popes come to power, 20 US presidents, two world wars, and multiple pandemics.

And the nun has just four words for those seeking to know the secret to her longevity: 

“Teach until you die,” she said, also adding: “You have to be a saint before you get to heaven.”

Born into a lively and generous family of Italian immigrants, Francis grew up surrounded by a community that gave back to those in need – she recounted stories to the New York Post where her father would bring daily sandwiches to hungry colleagues on the Long Island Railroad and her mother would cook big meals for the nuns in town. 

“It was normal for me to help people, and I liked helping them,” she said. Raised in a close-knit New York neighbourhood, she was the second-oldest of seven children born to Salvatore and Angela Piscatella, who were devoted to their faith and instilled grace and charity into their daily lives.

Francis said she was called to a life of service almost immediately after high school – though initially it was hard for her to join the church.

When she was just two years old, an accident with a passing train caused her to lose the majority of her left forearm – and in 1931 many convents were concerned that her amputation would be a hindrance to her service. But she didn’t give up easily.

“Nobody has ever had to help me,” she said in a 2022 interview with Catholic News Service. “If anyone was helping somebody, it was I helping them. When I went to the convent, I had to prove to my superiors that there was nothing I couldn’t do.”

When she was 17 years old, Francis finally got a teaching post with the Amityville Dominicans after a nun left a vacancy – and Sister Francis Kammer knows the story well, as Piscatella’s close friend, former student, and roommate for 45 years.

“The priest said, ‘Well, can she teach?’ And the sister said, ‘Oh, she’s a great teacher,'” said Francis Kammer.

“And he said, ‘Then she stays.’ And she never looked back.”

Francis earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at St. John’s University, and began her 52-year teaching career with math and tutoring at several grade schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York. 

She also taught at the Dominican Commercial High School in the borough of Queens, and the Dominican-run Molloy College in Rockville Centre, New York, where she later worked in an administrative capacity.

“Well, I don’t want to brag, but I was a pretty good student in everything,” she said. “I was a good teacher because I was teaching myself too. I was knocking it into my own head.”

Now, Francis’ life is much quieter since moving into an assisted-living floor of the motherhood, particularly after she survived a car accident resulting in a shattered right arm, a hip replacement, and brain bleed from a fall at age 102!

But she is “as vibrant as she can be”, according to one of her Sisters, and she still attends daily mass and participates in weekly social activities. 

Francis celebrated her 112th birthday on Easter Sunday this year, apparently talking up a storm and even requesting a particular Italian menu (“Cavatelli made special, and… eggplant and chicken salad” said Marie Piscatella to The Catholic Review).

And although she needs some help with daily activities like getting dressed (and going to her weekly hair appointments), her family is grateful for how cogent she is in her later years, and say it's a testament to her great life.

Though Francis has another way of putting it:

“I guess God doesn’t want me yet. He just wants me to hang around,” she said.

“That’s her favourite line,” said her nephew. “‘God’s not ready for me yet.’”

Photos supplied by the Sisters of St. Dominic of Amityville in New York, US, thanks to help from LongeviQuest