[?] – 1878
Pelagia Natsvlishvili was born in Tbilisi. She was the first female doctor and was among the first Georgian women, along with Pepo Eliozishvili, Keke Melikishvili and Mariam Tsereteli, who went to Switzerland to obtain education. This was the result of efforts undertaken by Niko Nikoladze to send best pupils of Tbilisi and Kutaisi educational institutions for women to Europe to continue their education.
From 1871 to 1878, Pelagia Natsvlishvili studied at the faculty of medicine in the University of Zurich. She was actively engaged in the work of the society of Georgian students, Ugheli, which was established under the leadership of Niko Nikoladze, Giorgi Tsereteli and Sergi Meskhi.
Pelagia Natsvlishvili, who arrived in Europe to obtain education together with her family, was unable to return to her homeland due to lack of means and undertook a job of doctor in Zurich. She died of tuberculosis on 31 May 1878 and was buried in Zurich.
Pelagia Natsvlishvili. Obituary
“Pelagia Natsvlishvili, to the distress to all her acquaintances, died in Zurich in May. This woman was among the first to realize appallingly restricted condition of women and decided to either put an end to this or to die in the fight for that cause. With this in mind, she went abroad six years ago and any of her acquaintances will confirm that she undertook the education with special zeal…
“Once, her close friend gave her a piece of advice: ‘if you are so keen to get education, you should better restrain your generosity and help yourself instead of providing material assistance to others; first achieve your goal and then engage in the generous activity you want to perform.’ In response to this advice Pelagia said: ‘this sounds like someone saying that he/she will first rob others, become rich and then assist the poor. No, my friend, I do not fear lack of money; I always have enough to avoid being prevented by hungry stomach from studying and if I experience shortage of everything, this encourages me to acquire more through my study and become thus capable to do more…”
The newspaper Droeba. Issue #138,
12 July, 1878