Today: Pope Leo XIV Meets Bob Dylan at the Vatican and Gives Him a Rosary

The man in the black hoodie walked through the Apostolic Palace on Wednesday afternoon, and the man in white waiting for him was the Pope. Bob Dylan, 85, had spent six decades writing songs the world still sings, and now he stood face to face with the first American pope, who had already quoted one of his protest songs in a book about peace.

Pope Leo XIV recieved Dylan at the Apostolic Palace on 4 November 2026, Vatican News reports. The meeting was brief, the Vatican outlet says, consisting of greetings and a few lighthearted exchanges.

The two men exchanged gifts that said more than a speech could. Vatican News reports that the Pope presented Dylan with a rosary, while Dylan gave the Pope a copy of his autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One.

Dylan, whose birth name is Robert Allen Zimmerman, is in Italy on the autumn leg of his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour, according to Vatican News and the National Catholic Register. He was due to perform at the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome on Thursday 5 November, with stops in Milan and Bologna also on the tour, Vatican News reports.

Two Bobs From the American Midwest

CNN notes the neat coincidence at the heart of the meeting: both men are famous Bobs from the American Midwest. Pope Leo XIV was born Robert Prevost in Chicago, CNN reports, while Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman.

The meeting was brokered by the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican culture official, according to CNN. Spadaro earlier in 2026 arranged a meeting between Pope Leo and singer Patti Smith, CNN reports.

Spadaro wrote on social media that it was hard not to feel the emotion of being part of an encounter with a real sense of history, CNN reports. He added that, at every step through the Apostolic Palace, it felt as if absolutely anything could happen.

Dylan wore a black hooded sweatshirt for the audience, Vatican News reports, with CNN adding a black coat and black gloves. The Pope wore his white cassock, CNN reports, and the Vatican newspaper confirmed the audience by saying the Pope had received in private audience Mr. Robert Allen Zimmerman.

The Song the Pope Quoted Before They Met

The meeting had a backstory that reached back to July 2026, when Pope Leo quoted Dylan in the preface to a book on disarmament. Vatican News reports that the book, published by the Vatican Publishing House, is titled Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift.

The Pope quoted Dylan's 1963 protest song Go Away You Bomb, a song addressed to the atomic bomb, Vatican News reports. The quoted line, in Dylan's spelling, reads: “I hate you cause yer man-made and man-owned, an' man-handled.”

The song was never officially recorded or released on an album, Vatican News reports, and its original manuscript remained unpublished until its discovery in 2013. The National Catholic Register reports that the Pope quoted Dylan to criticise the arms race, which he described as something that frightens and terrifies us today.

Readers who follow the Pope's public teaching can compare his recent reflection in Today: Pope Leo XIV Says Politics That Tends Wounds Gives Hope at General Audience November 4 2026. Music and faith meet in a different way in Hannah Harper Thanks God for Answered Prayers One Year After American Idol Audition, and a seasonal music story is covered in Lauren Daigle Christmas Songs With Preservation Hall Jazz Band Mark New Label Debut.

Not Dylan's First Meeting With a Pope

This was not the first time Dylan had met a pope, and the earlier meeting is part of why Wednesday felt historic. Vatican News reports that in 1997 Dylan performed at the 23rd National Eucharistic Congress in Bologna before Pope John Paul II and a crowd of about 300,000 young people.

After performing three songs, including Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Dylan removed his cowboy hat, climbed the steps to the papal stage, and shook hands with John Paul II, Vatican News reports. John Paul II then quoted Blowin' in the Wind back at the young crowd, asking how many roads a man must walk down before you can call him a man.

“Only one,” the Polish pope answered, according to Vatican News. “There is only one road for man, and that is the road of Jesus Christ.”

That 1997 exchange set the pattern for what happened this week: a singer whose songs ask hard questions, and a pope willing to answer them in public. The difference now is that the pope himself had already put Dylan's words into his own book before they ever shook hands.

What the two men said to each other beyond greetings and lighthearted exchanges has not been reported, and Vatican News does not claim more than that. What remains is a small, vivid picture: a rosary in one direction, an autobiography in the other, and a song about a bomb that a pope chose to quote in a book about peace.

Whether Dylan's Rome concert crowd on Thursday night hears anything about the meeting is still unknown, and the question of what a pope and a poet make of each other after the cameras leave may be the most interesting part of all.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.