Bob Dylan Meets Pope Leo XIV at Vatican

Bob Dylan visited Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Wednesday during a break between concert dates in Italy. The meeting took place in private, with two Vatican officials present.

The Vatican described the encounter as brief. During the meeting, Pope Leo XIV gave Dylan a rosary, and Dylan presented the pope with a copy of his autobiography, 'Chronicles: Volume One.'

Pope Leo XIV quoted a line from an unpublished protest song by Dylan, written in 1963, in his 2026 book 'Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift.' The lyric, addressed to a hypothetical atomic bomb, read: 'I hate you cause yer man-made and man-owned, an’ man-handled.'

Two Vatican officials accompanied Dylan: Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a culture ministry official, and Andrea Monda, editor of the Vatican newspaper. Spadaro noted Dylan's familiarity with St. Augustine of Hippo, a key figure in Leo's spirituality.

Dylan, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, wore a black hoodie and a loose tie during the meeting. Vatican photos showed him with the hood over his head.

This was not Dylan's first meeting with a pope. He performed for Pope John Paul II in 1997 during a concert in Bologna, Italy. Dylan, who changed his name from Robert Zimmerman, was born to a Jewish family in Minnesota.