Pope Leo XIV welcomed legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan to the Vatican on Wednesday, with the pair exchanging gifts during a brief meeting at the Apostolic Palace.
The 85-year-old music icon was visiting Rome as part of his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour, which has seen him perform across Italy.
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Dressed in his trademark black hoodie, jacket and gloves, Dylan cut a very different figure beside the Chicago-born Pope, who wore his traditional white cassock and zucchetto.
Photographs released by Vatican Media showed the pair greeting one another inside the Apostolic Palace, with the meeting reportedly consisting of a few exchanges and light-hearted conversation.
According to Vatican News, Pope Leo presented Dylan with a rosary, while the musician gifted the pontiff a copy of his autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One.
Pope Leo XIV. Editorial credit: OSCAR GONZALEZ FUENTES / Shutterstock
The encounter was particularly interesting given that the Pope has previously referenced Dylan's music in his own writing.
Earlier this year, Leo quoted lyrics from Dylan's little-known protest song Go Away You Bomb in the preface to a book about disarmament and peace, published by the Vatican.
Written in 1963 during the height of the Cold War, the song addresses the threat of nuclear weapons. It was never officially recorded or released on one of Dylan's albums, and its original manuscript was not discovered until 2013.
The Pope used the lyrics as part of a warning against global rearmament and the dangers of nuclear escalation.
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This is not the first time Dylan has met with a Pope. In 1997, he performed in front of Pope John Paul II and an estimated 300,000 young people at the National Eucharistic Congress in Bologna, Italy.
During the event, Dylan performed several of his best-known songs, including Knockin' On Heaven's Door and Blowin' In The Wind.
John Paul II even referenced the latter during his address, quoting its famous opening question about how many roads a man must walk down before he becomes a man, before offering his own religious interpretation.
Dylan, who was raised in a Jewish family in Minnesota, has explored religious themes throughout his career. He experienced a religious conversion in the late 1970s and subsequently released three albums heavily influenced by Christianity.
He has previously described himself as a religious person, saying in a 2022 interview that he regularly reads scripture, meditates and prays.
Following his Vatican visit, Dylan was due to perform at Rome's Palazzo dello Sport on Thursday as part of his ongoing Italian tour, before travelling to Bologna for another show.
