TO STUDY THE EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF PETER KHARISCHIRASHVILI

Abstract

Peter Kharischirashvili belongs to the people who devoted their life to their homeland though they had to spend their whole conscious life abroad. He established Georgian Catholic Fathers‘ Cloister of Istanbul as a powerful hub of Georgian culture, science and the Christian Church. After his death the Heads, elected by the Fathers, ran the Cloister until 1979. Two hotbeds of Meskhetian Enlightenment functioned from the II half of the XIX c., the founder of which was Peter Kharischirashvili and therefore he was considered to be at the origin of the Meskhetian Enlightenment. His educational activities served to strengthen the national awareness of Georgian man. Peter Kharischirashvili founded several Georgian Catholic Churches and the schools at the churches in Constantinople and Montoban in which the church service and teaching were fulfilled in Georgian. He drew a big attention to the cleanness of the Georgian language and insisted that the textbooks should be written in good, pure Georgian language. The Cloisters and schools established by him gave a good chance to Georgian young people to receive an education. Most of them were trained as priests and returned to their homeland. The textbooks prepared by Peter Kharischirashvili are significant achievement for a development of Georgian pedagogical thinking. Printing - publishing activities also occupy an important place in his educational work.