John Main

John Douglas Main OSB (21 January 1926 – 30 December 1982) was a Roman Catholic priest and Benedictine monk who presented a way of Christian meditation which used a prayer-phrase or mantra.

In 1975, Main began Christian meditation groups which met at Ealing Abbey, his monastery in West London, England, and, later, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

[citation needed] In 1970, Main was appointed the headmaster of St. Anselm's Abbey School in Washington, D.C., where he began to study seriously the writings of the desert father John Cassian for the first time.

[6] Each year the WCCM hosts the John Main Seminar, which has been led by Mary McAleese, Huston Smith, Charles Taylor, Father William Johnston, Father Richard Rohr OFM, Sister Joan Chittister OSB, Anglican archbishop Rowan Williams, Greek Orthodox bishop Kallistos Ware, Abbot Thomas Keating, Dom Bede Griffiths and the 14th Dalai Lama, among others.

[9] For full list of books about and from John Main, consult the web pages of the WCCM (The World Community For Christian Meditation): https://wccm.org/content/works-by-and-about-john-main/