Bob Dylan visited Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Wednesday, Nov. 4, during a break between concert dates in Italy — he played Milan on Monday and plays Rome on Thursday, according to Page Six, citing the Vatican.

The Vatican said the encounter was brief: Leo gave Dylan a rosary, and Dylan presented the pope with a copy of his autobiography, “Chronicles: Volume One.”

Leo had quoted from Dylan’s unpublished 1963 protest song “Go Away You Bomb” in his 2026 book “Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift.”

Two Vatican officials accompanied Dylan: Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican culture ministry official (who also accompanied Patti Smith to a July audience with Leo), and Andrea Monda, editor of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.

Dylan, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, wore a black hoodie and a loose tie. At his most recent concert before the meeting, Dylan sang his 1997 song “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven.”

Source: Page Six

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons — Bob Dylan portrait (1965).