Pope Leo XIV received Bob Dylan at the Apostolic Palace

A short audience on the eve of a concert

Pope Leo XIV received the American singer and poet Bob Dylan at his official residence, the Apostolic Palace, on Wednesday, during the Rome leg of the musician's Italian tour. This was reported by Vatican News, which is cited by BBC News and Anadolu. According to Vatican News, the meeting was brief and included greetings, a conversation and an exchange of gifts.

An exchange of gifts and a contrast of images

The 85-year-old Dylan, dressed almost entirely in black — with a hood pulled up, gloves and an umbrella — stood in sharp contrast to the pontiff in white vestments. Leo XIV, who was born in Chicago, gave the Nobel laureate a rosary, while Dylan handed the Pope a signed copy of his autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One. Both are natives of the American Midwest, as sources noted, citing Vatican News. The visit took place on the eve of Dylan's concert on Thursday at Rome's Palazzo dello Sport as part of the European leg of the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour, which, according to Anadolu, also includes Milan and Bologna.

A Pope who quotes Dylan

The meeting was not accidental in terms of the pontiff's creative interests: in July, Leo XIV quoted a line from Dylan's anti-nuclear song Go Away You Bomb in the preface to the book Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift, published by the Vatican Publishing House — warning against a rearmament race and the threat of nuclear weapons. The quote read: «I hate you cause yer man-made and man-owned, an' man-handled». The song was written in 1963, at the height of the Cold War, but was never recorded; the typewritten text remained unpublished until it was discovered and put up for auction in 2013 — according to the New York Times, cited by the BBC.

A second meeting with a pontiff

For Dylan, this is already his second meeting with a pope. In 1997, he performed before John Paul II and about 300,000 young participants of the 23rd National Eucharistic Congress in Bologna, performing, among other songs, Knockin' on Heaven's Door. Reportedly, in the middle of the performance he came up on stage to shake the pontiff's hand and exchange a few words, and the pope at the time quoted Dylan's hit Blowin' in the Wind in his homily.

Image source, Vatican pool/Getty