Fr. Maksymilian Nawara OSB is the Abbot President of the Benedictine Congregation of the Annunciation, the current spiritual assistant of the Benedict Option Foundation, and for many years the head of the Christian Meditation Center in Lubiń. A Benedictine monk, publicist, doctor of patristic theology, respected retreat leader, and promoter of interreligious dialogue.
He was born on March 10, 1979, in Sosnowiec and grew up in Będzin. After graduating from high school, he entered the monastery in Lubiń, where he began his novitiate in 1998, made his monastic profession in 2000, and solemn vows in 2003. He was ordained a priest in 2008 after completing studies at the Discalced Carmelite Major Seminary in Poznań. In 2015, he defended his doctoral dissertation at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, devoted to the theological interpretation of paradise in the writings of St. Ephrem the Syrian.
Since 2006, he has directed the Christian Meditation Center, continuing the work of Fr. Jan Bereza. He has served as novice master, subprior, and secretary to the prior. He is an active participant in dialogue with Zen Buddhism of the Sōtō tradition and for many years was involved in the ecumenical group “Christophoros.” He is the author and co-author of books on spirituality and meditation, including Breathing the Name, Meditation with Father Serafin, Listen, Meditation Is…, Meditation: The Way of Loving Presence, as well as numerous articles in Przewodnik Katolicki, W drodze, and on the CSPB portal.
At present, he combines his service as Abbot President with retreat work and the promotion of Christian meditation, showing its deep roots in the monastic tradition and its openness to encounters with other spiritual traditions. He assumed the role of spiritual assistant of the Benedict Option Foundation in 2025, succeeding Fr. Konrad Małys OSB, who in turn had taken over from the late Fr. Włodzimierz Zatorski OSB, the founder of the Foundation.