Bob Dylan presents rosary and memoir to Pope Leo XIV
The Nobel laureate met privately with the pontiff in Rome between concert dates, exchanging gifts that link their shared interest in faith and literature.
By Ethan Cooper ·
Bob Dylan visited Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Wednesday.
The meeting occurred during a break in the singer-songwriter's Italian concert schedule. The Vatican described the encounter as brief. Leo presented Dylan with a rosary. Dylan gave the pope a copy of his autobiography, "Chronicles: Volume One."
Two Vatican officials accompanied Dylan to the audience. The Rev. Antonio Spadaro, an official in the Vatican culture ministry, was present. He previously accompanied Patti Smith to a July meeting with the pope. Andrea Monda, editor of the newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, also attended. Spadaro stated that Dylan requested the private meeting. The two men spoke for a few minutes without other observers.
Spadaro noted in an essay for L'Osservatore Romano that Leo, born Robert Prevost in Chicago in 1955, grew up with Dylan's music. Spadaro also pointed out Dylan's familiarity with St. Augustine of Hippo. St. Augustine inspires Leo's spirituality and his religious order. Dylan wrote the 1967 song "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" for the album John Wesley Harding.
The two men have existing literary connections. Leo quoted an unpublished 1963 Dylan protest song, "Go Away You Bomb," in his 2026 book "Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift." Leo used the lyrics to warn against nuclear rearmament. He quoted the line: "I hate you cause yer man-made and man-owned, an' man-handled."
Dylan, who won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature, wore a black hoodie and a loose tie for the visit. Vatican photographs show him with the hood up. This was not his first interaction with a pope. He performed for Pope John Paul II in 1997 in Bologna, Italy, at a religious congress. Dylan, born Robert Zimmerman in Minnesota, converted to Christianity in 1979. He has since described himself as a religious person who reads scripture and prays, according to a 2022 Wall Street Journal interview.
Dylan played a concert in Milan on Monday. He is scheduled to perform in Rome on Thursday. Before the papal meeting, he sang his 1997 track "Tryin' to Get to Heaven." The song includes the lyric: "I've been all around the world, boys/Now I'm trying to get to heaven before they close the door."
