Welcoming the Stranger - Discovering Christ

Rev John Klassen OSB

Date

18 November 2010 4:00 pm

Rev John Klassen is the Tenth Abbot of Saint John's Abbey and Chancellor of Saint John's University. He became a Benedictine monk of Saint John's Abbey in 1972 and was ordained to priesthood in 1977. In 1985, he received the doctorate in bioorganic chemistry from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Abbot John then became the Director of Monastic Formation for the abbey from 1993-99. He has also been a director of a Benedictine Values program for the lay faculty and staff of the university, and he recently co-authored an essay on "Catholic, Benedictine Values in an Educational Environment." Abbot John leads a community of 196 Benedictine monks who sponsor and work at Saint John's University, Saint John's Preparatory School, and The Liturgical Press as well as in parishes, hospitals and retirement centers mainly in Minnesota, and in small monastic communities in Nassau, Bahamas, and Fujimi, Japan.