By Basant El-Faramawy
American singer-songwriter and Nobel laureate Bob Dylan met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Wednesday during a break between concert dates in Italy. The brief encounter included an exchange of gifts: the pope gave Dylan a rosary, while Dylan presented a copy of his autobiography, "Chronicles: Volume One."
Shared literary and spiritual connections
Pope Leo, born Robert Prevost in Chicago in 1955, has long been familiar with Dylan's work. In his 2026 book "Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift," Leo quoted from Dylan's unpublished 1963 protest song "Go Away You Bomb," citing the lyric addressing a hypothetical atomic bomb: "I hate you cause yer man-made and man-owned, an' man-handled." Vatican culture official Rev. Antonio Spadaro noted that Dylan is also well-versed in the writings of St. Augustine of Hippo, the inspiration for Leo's Augustinian spirituality, and penned "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" for his 1967 album "John Wesley Harding."
Private meeting and attire
Dylan, wearing a black hoodie with the hood up and a loose tie, met privately with the pope for a few minutes. Spadaro, who also accompanied Patti Smith to a July audience with Leo, said Dylan had requested the meeting. Andrea Monda, editor of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, also attended.
History of papal encounters
This was not Dylan's first meeting with a pope. In 1997, he performed for Pope John Paul II and thousands of others at a concert concluding a religious congress in Bologna, Italy. Born Robert Zimmerman to a Jewish family in Minnesota, Dylan became a born-again Christian in 1979, releasing faith-themed albums such as "Saved." In a 2022 interview, he described himself as a "religious person" who reads scriptures, meditates, and prays.
Concert schedule
Dylan's Vatican visit fell between performances in Milan on Monday and Rome on Thursday. At his most recent concert before the meeting, he sang "Tryin' to Get to Heaven," which includes the lyric: "I've been all around the world, boys/Now I'm trying to get to heaven before they close the door."
