Patti Smith Meets Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican in Rome

Patti Smith met with Pope Leo XIV on Friday at the Vatican. The singer and the pontiff, who are both Chicago natives, sat down for a 40-minute conversation.

The visit took place just days after Smith performed in Rome. The meeting was arranged by Rev. Antonio Spadaro, who serves as undersecretary in the Vatican’s culture ministry and is a friend of Smith.

“This is a moment that shall forever produce a smile,” Smith wrote on Instagram regarding the encounter.

A Musical Reference Recognized

Patti Smith portrait — Patti Smith, Photo: Birgit Fostervold, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Upon first meeting, Smith greeted Pope Leo XIV by saying “Hi, hi.” She delivered the greeting in the exact manner as on her 1979 song “Wave.” That track imagines a conversation with Pope John Paul I, who passed away following a 33-day papacy in 1978. Pope Leo XIV was familiar with “Wave” and immediately recognized the reference, telling Smith, “That was marvelous.”

“When that door opened, something happened… a spark was lit—one that came with a few lighthearted moments, but also with a profound sense of emotion and of a shared mission in this challenging world,” Rev. Spadaro wrote on Instagram.

Spadaro added: “Two Americans. Two Chicagoans. Two remarkable figures whose voices speak hope to a divided world: the ‘priestess of rock,’ as [Smith] is often called, and the Holy Father, [Pope Leo XIV]. It was a long audience that felt more like a conversation between two people discovering they were old friends, sharing memories woven from words and music, dreams, visions, and hopes—both from yesterday and for today.”

Shared Humanity

Although Smith is not Catholic, she noted that she was drawn to Pope Leo XIV because of his “gentle, open, and steadfast sense of humanity.” In May, Smith performed at the inauguration of the Holy See’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale contemporary art fair, which celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Pope’s election.

Smith previously met Pope Francis in 2013 and sang for him the following year. When Pope Francis died in 2025, Smith penned a poem about him.