Bob Dylan walked into the Vatican's Apostolic Palace on Wednesday wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and walked out with a rosary from Pope Leo XIV. In exchange, the 85-year-old singer handed the pontiff a copy of his own memoir, Chronicles: Volume One. The brief, in-person sit-down came one day before Dylan was due onstage in Rome.
A Quick Hello Before the Rome Show
According to Vatican News, the meeting happened Wednesday in the Apostolic Palace, where Pope Leo XIV met in person with the man born Robert Allen Zimmerman. The outlet reported that the Holy Father presented Dylan with a rosary while Dylan reciprocated with his book. Vatican News also noted that Dylan was scheduled to perform Thursday at the Palazzo dello Sport as part of the touring musician's ongoing international dates.
The Association of Catholic Priests described the exchange itself as short — greetings and a few lighthearted moments rather than any extended conversation. Dylan showed up in the hooded sweatshirt, a detail the outlet flagged as notable against the formality of the setting. As the San Diego Union-Tribune notes, the audience took place at the Vatican's Apostolic Palace just ahead of Dylan's Rome concert.
A Line From an Unreleased Protest Song
This was not the pope's first nod to Dylan's catalog. Vatican News reported that Pope Leo quoted lyrics from Dylan's 1963 song Go Away You Bomb back in July, in the preface to a Vatican Publishing House book on disarmament. The outlet pointed out the odd footnote that the song itself was never officially recorded or released on any album, making it an obscure choice for a papal preface.
Dylan's Complicated Decades-Old Ties to Christianity
Dylan's relationship with Christian imagery long predates this week's Vatican visit. The Forward reported that he converted to born-again Christianity for a time in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a period that produced some of his most theologically direct work. OUPblog recounts that during a concert on November 17, 1978, an audience member tossed a small silver cross onto the stage; Dylan picked it up and put it in his pocket.
OUPblog says Dylan later wore the cross in Tucson and experienced the presence of Jesus in his hotel room. The account offers a glimpse into Dylan's spiritual turning point, but what he believed in that moment and how it shaped the years that followed remain part of the lore around his born-again period.
An Earlier Pope Also Quoted Dylan's Lyrics
Vatican News also reported that John Paul II quoted the lyrics to Blowin' in the Wind during Dylan's 1997 appearance in Bologna.
A Public Performance Before John Paul II
According to Vatican News, Dylan performed alongside other artists at the 23rd National Eucharistic Congress in Bologna in 1997, before Pope John Paul II and approximately 300,000 young people. That was a performance at a large public gathering; Wednesday's encounter with Pope Leo XIV was an in-person meeting at the Apostolic Palace.
Accounts of the Bologna crowd size differ: UPI Archives reported 400,000 people in Piazza Maggiore, while the Association of Catholic Priests estimated approximately 300,000 young people. Both accounts describe a large public gathering, unlike Wednesday's in-person meeting at the Vatican. The Forward framed that meeting as an encounter between two elderly men, one Jewish and one Catholic, exchanging gifts and mutual admiration.
