Dylan Hands Leo XIV Autobiography During Brief Vatican Audience
The 2016 Nobel laureate met privately with the American pope between Italian concert dates, presenting a copy of his memoir.
By Nathaniel Hayes ·
Bob Dylan met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Wednesday during a pause in his Italian concert tour.
The two men have a shared literary and spiritual history that predates their face-to-face meeting. Leo, who was born in Chicago in 1955, grew up listening to Dylan's music. The pontiff also drew a direct connection between the singer and his own theological influences. In his 2026 book, Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift, Leo quoted lyrics from Dylan's unpublished 1963 protest song, Go Away You Bomb. The lyric warned against the rearmament race by describing the atomic bomb as man-made, man-owned, and man-handled. Dylan, in turn, wrote the song I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine for his 1967 album John Wesley Harding. St. Augustine of Hippo serves as the foundation for Leo's spirituality and his Augustinian religious order.
The Vatican described the encounter as brief. Two officials accompanied Dylan into the private meeting. Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican culture ministry official, had previously arranged a similar audience for Patti Smith in July. Andrea Monda, the editor of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, also attended. Spadaro stated that Dylan had specifically requested to speak with Leo. The two spoke in private for several minutes. During the visit, Leo gave Dylan a rosary. Dylan presented the pope with a copy of his autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One.
Dylan arrived at the Vatican wearing a black hoodie with the hood up and a loose tie. He is currently performing in Italy between concert dates. He played a show in Milan on Monday. He is scheduled to perform in Rome on Thursday. At his most recent concert before the papal meeting, he performed his 1997 song Tryin' to Get to Heaven. The song includes the line, I've been all around the world, boys/Now I'm trying to get to heaven before they close the door.
This is not Dylan's first interaction with a pope. He performed for Pope John Paul II in 1997 during a concert that capped a religious congress in Bologna, Italy. Dylan, born Robert Zimmerman to a Jewish family in Minnesota, converted to Christianity in 1979. He later released songs such as Gotta Serve Somebody and Saved, which alienated some of his earlier fans. In a 2022 interview with the Wall Street Journal, he described himself as a religious person who reads scriptures, meditates, and prays.
