Souza Araújo was born in Imbituva, Paraná, Brazil, in 1886. He graduated from the Escola de Farmácia de Ouro Preto in Minas Gerais and enrolled immediately at the Faculdade de Medicina de Rio de Janeiro, finishing there in 1915. While still a student, he also completed the Curso de Applicação offered by the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (IOC) in 1913. He received his doctorate from IOC, with his thesis entitled Estudo sobre o granuloma venéreo. His training concluded with the courses in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in the US in 1926, and in Dermatology at the London School of Dermatology between 1930 and 1931.
