Born in Drăgușeni, Suceava County, his parents were Gheorghe Cardaș and his wife Amalia (née Camondo), and he came from an intellectual family.
He attended primary school in his native village and the nearby rural localities Topile and Siliștea.
[1] Cardaș' first published work consisted of folkloric texts that appeared in the Bârlad magazine Ion Creangă in 1916.
He put together numerous anthologies with good judgment and philological rigor, prefacing them with detailed studies.
He also published collections featuring poems by Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu and the tales of Ion Creangă and Petre Ispirescu.