She was born in the city of São Paulo de Muriaé, in the state of Minas Gerais, on 20 July 1880, and died in Rio de Janeiro on 26 August 1969. She was the daughter of Herculano Gomes de Souza and D. Olímpia Júdice Gomes de Souza. At the age of 12, she finished primary school and entered the famous American Methodist School in the city of Juiz de Fora, in the state of Minas Gerais. She was an exemplary pupil, much loved by her classmates and teachers, extremely dedicated to her studies and to following the precepts of the Lutheran Church, the religion of her parents.

In 1896, she finished her studies. On 7 May 1897, she married the young Olindo Belém, a daring artist and pioneer of numerous initiatives, mentioned in the chronicles of many newspapers of the time... Her husband was also of the same religion and, while studying at the Grambery College, he preached alongside famous Protestant pastors. Fifteen children were born of their marriage, 12 of whom grew up and founded families, all of them later spiritists.

Her marriage brought her both joys and vicissitudes. She lived in several cities, such as Belo Horizonte, Sabará, Cristais and Campo Belo. With the responsibility of accompanying her husband, she was often forced to emigrate to other regions. In 1921, they settled permanently in the city of Rio de Janeiro, where circumstances were contrary to her husband's provincial and rural lifestyle. She settled in the former Federal Capital, living on the memories of the past and the glory days she had spent among the most prominent intellectuals and politicians of the state of Minas Gerais.

Quite the opposite happened with Olímpia Belém, who became a determined and dynamic woman, both at home and in society. With the disincarnation of her daughter Oraiza, who had already known the Spiritist Doctrine through the books of the Kardec Codification, her mediumship flourished and she began to receive spiritual communications from her beloved daughter. He went to the Cristófilo Spiritist Centre, in the neighbourhood of Catete, where the famous blind medium Porfírio Bezerra performed unusual doctrinal works and also gave prescriptions for medicines, guided by beneficent spirits.

There she felt a real inclination towards spiritism, of which she became a convinced follower. She possessed exceptional mediumship and devoted herself to the task of helping the sick and needy. Her house soon became a real refuge for the poor of the neighbourhood, who came there in search of medicine, words of comfort, second-hand clothes and shelter; everyone began to seek help and assistance. Nena, as she was affectionately called. Her social welfare work propelled her to fame, making her a great benefactor of destitute children and shamed poverty, a true missionary in the service of Jesus Christ.

Her work, however, expanded enormously, so that she was asked to give talks and lectures in many Spiritist Centres in the former Federal District. She went on to write for numerous organs of the Brazilian spiritist press. Many of her articles were published in the traditional organs "Aurora", "Mundo Spiritist", "A Centelha" and others. As a poet, she produced a large number of poems and sonnets and published them in the spiritist press. She also published four books, including two mediumistic novels: "Jerusa" and "Dolória", as well as two unpublished books, one of poetry and the other of spiritual messages.

When she moved to the Tijuca district, she founded the Disciples of Jesus Spiritist Centre, through which many outstanding spiritists passed, such as João Torres, Arthur Machado, Daniel Cristóvão, Depaula Machado, Ruth Santana (Director of the House of Lázara), Aurino Barbosa Souto, Esmeralda Bittencourt and many others. Other institutions also emerged from there, such as the Union of the Disciples of Jesus, a society that reached great prominence when it was directed by Nelson Batista de Azevedo. On 18 January 1937, she founded a charitable institution for orphaned and abandoned girls, to which Olímpia Belém dedicated her entire life, with more than 1,000 young girls having passed through it since its foundation.

In anticipation of her disincarnation, Olímpia Gomes de Souza Belém wrote and kept the following words inside a Gospel, a sheet of paper later found by her daughter Omariza Belém, today her replacement as director of the Casa:

"When I die, my body will remain for the usual hours in a humble coffin, on the table of the Centre of my work, for which I have renounced everything, exposed to the visit of those who remember to offer me a prayer. My spirit will certainly be far away, only God knows. My family and my adopted daughters must not mourn me, but glorify Jesus for His Divine Work of Love and Charity, which allowed the humblest creature to accomplish the great and colossal work of fraternity, of which I was the creator and for which I renounced my life with love and devotion."

A few days before she died, she wrote her last comic strips.