Osório de Moraes was born in the small mining town of Bagagem (now Estrela do Sul) on 21 December 1886. The youngest son of Irineu Osório de Moraes and Ana Virgínia de Moraes, he was orphaned by his father when he was only one year old. The tragic death of his father, a travelling salesman, in the state of Mato Grosso left the family destitute. Help came from his maternal grandmother, who took in her widowed daughter and three grandchildren: Felisminda, Elias, and Osório. The children were cared for by their nanny Joana, born to a slave mother, who was extremely devoted and became their ‘beloved black mother.’ One morning, Osório reveals in his autobiographical pamphlet Fragmentos de uma Alma (Fragments of a Soul), Joana woke up saying: “Irineu's soul appeared to me last night. I saw him as I see you”. (...) He came up to me and said: “Joana, help me raise my children...”.

Osório completed primary school at a public school. At the age of 15, after taking private lessons in Portuguese and mathematics, he became a teacher for the children of the most important landowner in the region, later practising the same profession on another estate. Some time later, Mr. Plácido de Paiva, who had to leave town for two weeks, insisted that he take over the management of his commercial enterprise. The task, which he performed with remarkable efficiency, lasted more than four months, leading the young Osório to discover his innate vocation for commerce. He worked as a clerk and accountant in other commercial houses, becoming a partner in one of them at the age of 17. This was the company “Santos & Moraes”, which was dissolved two years later with good profits distributed between the two partners.

In 1908, at the age of 22, thanks to the prestige he had earned for his integrity, he was elected councillor in his homeland. When he married Maria Luíza de Santana on 5 June 1911, he asked Father Marcelo, vicar of Estrela do Sul, to dispense him from confession, and the priest agreed after hearing his arguments. That same year, he moved to Coromandel, where, in partnership with his father-in-law, he transformed part of his father-in-law's commercial house into a pharmacy, founding the company ‘Osório & Cia.’, whose expansion led to the creation of five branches in the municipality and neighbouring cities.

The political career he had begun in his hometown continued in Coromandel, then part of the district of Patrocínio, where he was elected councillor in 1920 and became president of the Municipal Chamber two years later. During his term, he succeeded in elevating Coromandel to the status of municipality. A born leader, dynamic and enterprising, he promoted the creation of schools and the construction of the public prison, the hydroelectric power station and the town hall of the newly emancipated municipality. It was also on his initiative that the road linking Coromandel to Monte Carmelo was built. The school he had built in Coromandel was named after him, in a fitting tribute of gratitude from the town's population. That same year, in 1922, he brought the first car to the region and, at the invitation of his compadre and friend Joaquim Henriques Cardoso, he set up the company “Cardoso & Moraes”, dedicated to pharmaceutical products, which in 1929, after the resignation of his partner, who had bought a coffee farm and wanted to study medicine, it passed entirely into his hands under the name ‘Laboratório Osório de Moraes’.

For having actively participated in the Revolution of 1930, Governor Olegário Maciel convinced him to accept, albeit reluctantly, the appointment to the position of mayor of Coromandel. On 21 November 1932, concerned about his children's education and given the need to expand the business of the small and promising pharmaceutical industry, he decided to move to Belo Horizonte, abandoning political life for good. In the capital of Minas Gerais, he acquired the property at 92 Muriaé Street, where he set up his industrial activity and his own residence.

Contact with Spiritism

On the afternoon of 4 April 1936, unusual mediumistic phenomena occurred at his residence. Lumps of earth, bricks, and various objects were thrown inside the house, causing panic among his wife and ten children: Stela, Mário, Irineu, Pérola, Walda, Vanda, Osório, Roberto, Helena, and Gláucia, as reported prominently in the then evening newspaper Diário da Tarde.

The following day, Sunday, at 1 o'clock, Osório, who was already a supporter of Spiritism, went to the União Espírita Mineira (Minas Gerais Spiritist Union) in search of help. He was received by President Rodrigo Agnelo Antunes, who, accompanied by some friends, including the clairvoyant medium Geraldo Benício Rocha, held a meeting that same day at Osório's residence, where it was clarified that the phenomena were occurring through the intermediation of 10-year-old Cenira, a girl who was being cared for in that home. The transport phenomena ceased when Cenira was taken from the house to the home of Laudemiro Alves Ferreira and later to that of Geraldo Rocha, Oscar Coelho dos Santos and other spiritists, and was finally taken by Leopoldo Machado to Nova Iguaçu, where she underwent a treatment for spirit possession.

After this ‘awakening,’ Osório acquired all of Allan Kardec's books to study them. Attending the União Espírita Mineira regularly, he began to dispel his doubts, gathering profound teachings about the Gospel of Jesus from the wisdom of Professor Cícero Pereira. It was also at the União Espírita Mineira, then located at 626 Curitiba Street, that he met Alencar Braga, Leonardo Baumgratz, Rubens Romanelli, Noraldino de Mello Castro, Oscar Coelho dos Santos, Francisco Cândido Xavier, Luiz Ziviani, Salvador Schembri, and other friends. In early 1937, they sought to gather colleagues to create an institution to support disadvantaged children.

It was the ‘embryo’ of Abrigo Jesus, which was officially created on 25 July 1937 and whose headquarters were inaugurated on 31 March 1946. Osório de Moraes, who had been elected second treasurer at the founding assembly, was unanimously elected in the following term, thanks to his friendliness, skill, competence and leadership spirit, to the position of president, which he would hold for 30 years in successive re-elections. In order to devote himself ‘body and soul’ to Abrigo Jesus, ‘Papa Osório,’ as the children sheltered there called him, entrusted the management of the pharmaceutical laboratory to his sons Mário and Irineu. He writes in the aforementioned pamphlet: "In my life, there were two periods in which I devoted myself body and soul to matters of public interest: the first, as a politician in Coromandel, where I lived for 21 years, obsessed with the affairs of that land; in the second, with Abrigo Jesus, I was overcome by the same passion, devoting myself completely to the mysteries of the institution, (...) enveloped in a sweet ecstasy of charm and tenderness for the children."

After 52 years of married life, during which he stood out for his virtues as a devoted husband and exemplary father, his partner Maria Luíza passed away on 3 September 1963. Unable to bear the loneliness, he remarried on 7 May 1966 to Leonides Urbano Conde, a wonderful person who cared for him until his death. At the age of 94, Osório de Morais passed away in Belo Horizonte on 24 January 1980, crowning the reincarnatory experience of this authentic Christian, marked by love for his family and devotion to his neighbours.