World's oldest man, Saturnino, dies three weeks before 113th birthday

THE WORLD'S oldest man has died just three weeks before his 113th birthday, leaving 14 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren, his family has confirmed.

Saturnino de la Fuente García, from León city's Puente Castro neighbourhood, earned his place in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest living man on earth on September 10 last year, aged 112 and 211 days, shortly after the death of Puerto Rico's Emilio Flores at the same age.

Although the Caribbean islander said he was born a few months before Saturnino, he was unable to show a birth certificate or registry entry, since at the time – late 1908 – this was not common practice in his home country.

In fact, despite Saturnino's ID card showing his date of birth as February 12, 1909, he was actually born on February 8 – but parents in the early 20th century did not normally bother to register their children's births for several days.

Infant mortality was very high, and it was generally considered that there was no point in going through the red tape and paperwork of registering a birth until the parents were fairly confident the newborn was going to survive.

Had they known their son was going to survive for nearly another 113 years, they might have decided it was worth grappling with the bureaucracy straight away rather than leaving it for the standard four days after labour.

Saturnino married Antonina Barrio in 1933, and they had seven daughters, then a son who died in very early childhood.

The daughters would go on to give Saturnino 14 grandchildren, who have since given him 22 great-grandchildren – and it might have been his unusually short stature that enabled him to live long enough to see them.

As he was only 1.5 metres (4'11”) tall, Saturnino was too small to serve in the Civil War which broke out three years after he married Antonina.

Instead, he carried on in his lifelong career as a shoe-maker and, outside his main job, played for the local football team in Puente Castro, which he helped set up.

Saturnino has always been a faithful fan of CD León and regularly went to see matches, until very old age.

His nickname for over a century was El Pepino, which translates as 'the cucumber' but in fact was nothing to do with this salad vegetable – it was an abbreviated version of his mum, Peña's name, and more or less meant 'little Peña', in the masculine form.

Asked what his secret to staying on the planet so long was, Saturnino said, “living a quiet life, and not harming anyone.”

Son-in-law Bernado Marcos explained Saturnino's passing was very quick and peaceful.

At around 11.00 today (Tuesday), shortly after having had his breakfast, Saturnino 'started breathing very hard and deeply' and, seconds later, 'went out like a light'.

Spain has been home to the world's oldest man twice in the last decade – Francisco Núñez Olivera, from Badajoz (Extremadura), held the title until his death on January 29, 2018 at the age of 113 years and 47 days.

The oldest woman on earth at present is Kane Tanaka, from Japan, whose 119th birthday was on January 2 this year.

She was born the day after New Year's Day in 1903, and is only the third person in history to have reached 119 years of age, after France's 122-year-old Jeanne Calment and the USA's Sarah Knauss who, born in September 1880, died two days too early to become the first of only two people ever to have lived in three different centuries, as she passed away on December 30, 1999.

Italy's Emma Morano, who died on April 15, 2017 aged 117 years and 137 days, is currently the only person ever to have lived in three centuries, having been born on November 29, 1899.

Of the top 100 longest-living people on earth of all time – 94 of them being women – Ana María Vela Rubio comes 22nd, having passed away in her Barcelona home in December 2017 aged 116 and 47 days, leaving a 90-year-old surviving daughter.

At number 63 on the list is María Branyas Morera, who is still alive as at today and, if she survives until March 4, will be celebrating her 115th birthday.

Number 83 is María Antonia Castro, who died on January 16, 1996, aged 114 years and 218 days – the only person on the list for Spain to have been born in the 19th century, in June 1881.

So far, Ana María Vela Rubio is the longest-living person in Spain in all time, and at the same time Francisco Núñez was the world's oldest living man, Ana Vela was Europe's oldest and the world's third-oldest living woman.

María Branyas Morera is currently Spain's oldest resident.