Bob Dylan meets Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, trading his memoir for a rosary

Bob Dylan met privately with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Wednesday, Nov. 4, and the two exchanged gifts. The pope gave the singer a rosary, and Dylan gave the pope a copy of his memoir, "Chronicles: Volume One."

The meeting took place at the Apostolic Palace, the pope's official residence. Vatican News described it as "brief, consisting of greetings and a few lighthearted exchanges." The Vatican's own Instagram caption was just as spare: "Pope Leo XIV met with American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in a private audience on Wednesday, November 4."

Dylan dressed entirely in black. He wore a hoodie with the hood up, apparently over a baseball cap, along with a jacket, a zip-up, a loosely knotted polka-dot tie and pants. Photos released by the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication show the two men shaking hands, with Leo in his white robes. Another image appears to show Dylan, one glove off, signing a book for the pontiff. Billboard reported that the picture set off hundreds of memes online.

A pope who quotes Dylan

Leo's interest in Dylan's work predates the visit. In the preface to a collection of his speeches on peace, the pope quoted "Go Away You Bomb," an obscure anti-nuclear piece Dylan wrote in 1963. Pitchfork describes it as a lyric written for a book of anti-nuclear poetry that never came out. NME calls it an unreleased song.

Dylan has met a pope before. In 1997, he performed at a concert honoring Pope John Paul II and met him there. Dylan was raised Jewish and converted to evangelical Christianity in 1978. He then released a string of Christian albums before easing back on overtly religious material in later years.

The meeting brought together two Midwesterners. Dylan, a Nobel laureate, is from Minnesota. Leo, 71, grew up in Chicago and is the first American-born pope. His papacy began May 8, 2025.

Since then, Leo has met with a range of musicians. In July, the pope welcomed Patti Smith, another Chicago native, for a 40-minute private audience. The Rev. Antonio Spadaro, the Vatican's undersecretary for culture and education and a longtime friend of Smith's, accompanied her. Spadaro said she was nearly speechless at first, but she and the pope soon found an easy rapport. "When that door opened, something happened," he wrote on X. Smith, who is not Catholic, said afterward, "This is a moment that shall forever produce a smile."

Other encounters have included:

• A short private meeting with Bad Bunny and members of his family on June 8, 2026, at Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid. The pope was on an official visit to Spain, and the Puerto Rican star was in the city for a 10-concert residency.
• A handshake with Lou Marini, the saxophonist who appeared in "The Blues Brothers," at a religious gathering in Rimini, Italy, in August. Citing reports, Billboard said the pope told Marini he was "still on a mission from God," echoing the film's best-known line. Marini gave him a pair of Ray-Bans, and Leo gave him two rosaries in return.
• A Vatican ceremony on Nov. 12, 2025, where Italian singer Laura Pausini received Billboard Italy's Global Icon award in the pope's presence.
• A July 29 prayer for peace at Castel Gandolfo with tenor Andrea Bocelli and a 164-member international children's choir. The event marked the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi.

Leo also oversaw, but did not attend, the Grace for the World concert in St. Peter's Square in September 2025. That show featured Bocelli, Karol G, Pharrell Williams, John Legend and Jennifer Hudson.

Dylan's Italian tour stops and a new box set

Dylan's visit came a day before a scheduled show on Thursday, Nov. 5, at the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome. The concert is one of several Italian dates on his Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour.

On Friday, Nov. 6, Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings are releasing "The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1976 Live Recordings." The 39-CD box set documents Dylan's 1976 tour in full.

The tour's UK leg opens Nov. 25 in Bournemouth, with stops including Birmingham, Sheffield and Blackpool. Dylan then plays five shows at London's Royal Festival Hall from Dec. 3 to 8. They will be his first London concerts since three nights at the Royal Albert Hall in 2024.

Dylan has used the tour to bring back songs he rarely plays. Earlier this year, he performed "I Shall Be Released" for the first time in 18 years at the Cuthbert Amphitheater in Eugene, Oregon. Near Seattle, he played "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" for the first time since 2012.