A Cape Breton nun believed to be the oldest woman in Canada has died 68 days short of her 114th birthday.

Sister Annie Samson died Monday in Moncton's Convent of Les Filles de Jésus (Daughters of Jesus), where she had lived since 1985 after breaking her hip.

Born Feb. 5, 1891 in River Bourgeois, N.S., Samson had been ranked as the 8th oldest person in the world.

Annie Samson (CP photo)

When she was born, John A. Macdonald was prime minister of Canada, Queen Victoria reigned over Britain and Canadian phys-ed instructor James Naismith was dreaming up a new sport called basketball.

Samson graduated as a teacher in 1912, the same year the Titanic sank. She spent several years working before entering the convent, taking her vows in 1917.

According to the 2001 census, 3,795 people living in Canada were aged 100 years or older. Of those, 3,055 were women and 740 men.

The Guinness Book of World Records says the oldest fully authenticated age that any human has ever lived is 122 years and 164 days, by Jeanne-Louise Calment, who died in a nursing home in France in 1997.