Since he lost his father at an early age, Filip Hristić was adopted, lived and studied with the Serbian Metropolitan Melentije Pavlović, who was the brother of the uncle of Toma Vučić-Perišić.

In Belgrade, he graduated from the Lyceum in 1836, and continued his education with a state scholarship abroad in Vienna and Paris, at The Sorbonne, he was granted Ph.D. in law.

Hristić was hired in public administration at the end of the reign of Prince Aleksandar Karađorđevic, as commissioner of the Danube Commission.

In October 1875, he was sent to Prince Nikola I of Montenegro to discuss the co-operation in events of the war against the Ottoman Empire.

Djordje, at one point, after the death of his brother, King Alexander Obrenović showed claims to the Serbian throne.