Syntheses of important classes of (heterocyclic) com­pounds, the sustainable generation of hydrogen, and the use of abundantly available metals are highly desirable. We introduce here a catalytic oxazole synthesis. Our reaction is a regio selective, one-pot reaction and starts from esters and amino alcohols. Both are abundantly and diversely available and inexpensive starting materials. Hydrogen is liberated during the reaction and a molecular earth-abundant metal catalyst, a Mn(I) compound, mediates the reaction most effectively - and more ef­ficiently than Ir and Ru catalysts. None of the oxazole derivatives synthesized, except the screening substrate and an active ingredient of a drug (an application), have been reported in literature yet.