Bob Dylan meets Pope Leo at the Vatican

Music legend Bob Dylan has visited Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, the official papal news website reported on Wednesday.

The two US-born men had a short conversation and exchanged gifts, Vatican News reported. Leo gave the musician a rosary, while Dylan gave the head of the Catholic Church a copy of his autobiography.

Born to Jewish immigrant parents, Dylan's real name is Robert Allen Zimmerman. He is currently in Rome for his concert tour "Rough and Rowdy Ways."

The renowned American singer-songwriter and poet, who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 2016, was received on Wednesday afternoon at the Apostolic Palace by Leo XIV, the Vatican news website said. The pontiff had previously quoted his lyrics in the preface to a book on disarmament.

Dylan's outfit sparked discussion on social media. Photos of the meeting show him dressed entirely in black, wearing a hood over a baseball cap, along with leather gloves, while carrying an umbrella.

The discussion of the two Midwesterners — Dylan, 85, is from Minnesota and Leo, 71, is from Chicago — was not made public.

In July, Leo unexpectedly quoted lines from Dylan's anti-war poem "Go Away You Bomb" in the foreword to a book about war and peace. The work was written in 1963 during the Cold War and remained unpublished for a long time. The pope used the verses in connection with a call against a global arms build-up and the nuclear threat.