ROME — Patti Smith, the rock poet whose career has long blended music, spirituality and rebellion, appeared visibly delighted Friday as she met Pope Leo XIV, at times seeming nearly too moved to speak.
“Hi,” Smith said quietly, settling into a chair across from Leo at his desk inside the Apostolic Palace.
With a crucifix around her neck and her hair styled in her familiar braids, Smith has become a notable figure in Vatican cultural circles, a connection strengthened by her friendship with the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, the undersecretary of the Vatican’s culture ministry.
Smith has previously said she is not Catholic, but has spoken warmly about being inspired by Pope Francis, praising what she described as his “gentle, open, and steadfast sense of humanity.”
Her fascination with the papacy also reaches back decades. Her 1979 song “Wave” imagines a conversation with Pope John Paul I, who died after just 33 days as pontiff. The track opens with the words “Hi. Hi,” delivered in the same airy, intimate tone Smith used while greeting Leo on Friday.
Leo appeared to recognize the reference. “That was marvelous,” the pope told her.
Smith’s Vatican ties were on display earlier this year as well, when she performed at the opening of the Holy See’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale contemporary art fair. The event took place on May 8, the anniversary of Leo’s election.
Spadaro, who accompanied Smith to Friday’s audience, said the meeting between the two Chicago natives lasted about 40 minutes. In a text message, he described it as feeling “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.”
He said at the end, Smith said “Bye. Bye.”
Smith met Francis in 2013 and sang for him in 2014. When he died, on April 21, 2025, she wrote a poem on social media, comparing Francis to a dandelion, “humble yet strong.”
“Nature and poetry and the suffering shall miss their champion,” she wrote.
It was Leo’s second encounter with a music legend this week. On Wednesday, Leo attended a concert in his honor by tenor Andrea Bocelli.
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