Catholic priest and public figure Shalva Vardidze was born in the village of Arali, Adigeni District. In 1885, he went to Istanbul to pursue education and served in the Feriköy district as a clergyman.

In 1911, he founded a Georgian club in Istanbul, the statute of which was approved unchanged by the Ottoman authorities. The club developed the program for the Georgian Catholic Society. A Georgian school was planned to be opened by 1914, but the outbreak of World War I prevented its realization.

The Immaculate Conception Convent of the Georgian Catholics in Istanbul played a significant role in Georgia’s national-liberation movement during 1914–1917 and 1920–1930. The "Georgian Independence Committee" (also known simply as the "Independence Committee"), established in Geneva in 1914, operated from the monastery’s guesthouse. Its goal was to restore Georgia’s independence under German protection. The committee's work was actively supported by Shalva Vardidze, the monastery’s head. The newspaper Komunisti (1928, No. 212) provides valuable information about this.

For his dedicated struggle for Georgia’s independence, Shalva Vardidze was awarded the Order of Queen Tamar Legion.

In 1921, the first issues of the Georgian émigré political journal Free Georgia were printed at the monastery’s press in Istanbul.

Throughout his life, Shalva Vardidze actively promoted Georgian culture abroad. He was fluent in nine languages and published articles in all of them in international journals and newspapers, introducing readers to Georgian cultural history.

He translated chapters of The Knight in the Panther’s Skin into French and provided insightful commentary on the original Georgian text. His literary reviews, especially his comprehensive study of the works of Vakhtang Orbeliani (translated into French), are of significant value.

In 1921, he translated from French into Georgian the work Georgians in Constantinople by Italian writer and diplomat Eugenio D'Alessio D'Alessio. He was also a poet, mostly writing patriotic poetry.

Vardidze’s historical works deserve special mention, including his A Brief History of Georgia, written in Arabic and published in Beirut, and The Great Patron of Georgia, dedicated to King David the Builder. These works introduced the Arab world to Georgia’s Golden Age.

From 1945, Shalva Vardidze, having been repressed, lived and worked in a Christian monastery near Beirut, located in the Lebanese mountains. He was also a professor at the French University in Beirut.

Shalva Vardidze died in Lebanon in either 1957 or 1958. His archive was brought to Turkey at great personal risk by businessman and public figure Simon Zazadze and transferred to the Georgian Catholic monastery.

Source:

Shushana Putkaradze. The Georgian Convent in Istanbul / Shushana Putkaradze; Center for South Caucasus and Anatolian Studies. – Tbilisi: [Artanuji], 2012. – 146 pp.: photos; 20 cm. – (South Caucasus and Anatolia, ISSN 1512-4479; 7 / Series ed. Roin Metreveli). – Summary in English and Turkish. – Index: pp. 71–81. – Bibliography: pp. 69–70. – ISBN 978-9941-421-61-7