Rock music icon Patti Smith met with Pope Leo XIV on Friday in an audience at the Apostolic Palace in Rome.
Describing the meeting as "giddy," Smith expressed being almost at a loss for words as she sat with the pontiff. She greeted him with a soft "Hi," a vocalization reminiscent of her 1979 song "Wave," which featured a make-believe conversation with Pope John Paul I shortly after his death.
Pope Leo XIV acknowledged the song, calling it "marvelous." The pontiff was also recently honored by tenor Andrea Bocelli, who performed a concert in his honor earlier in the week.
Smith, who is not Catholic but has expressed admiration for Pope Francis's "gentle, open, and steadfast sense of humanity," has become a more visible figure at the Vatican. This visibility is partly attributed to her friendship with the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, an undersecretary in the Vatican’s culture ministry.
Earlier this year, Smith performed at the inauguration of the Holy See’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The date, May 8, marked the anniversary of Leo's election as pope.
Spadaro, who was present at the Friday audience, characterized the 40-minute meeting between the two Chicago natives as a conversation between "old friends," who shared "memories woven from words and music, dreams, visions, and hopes."
Smith previously met Pope Francis in 2013 and performed for him in 2014. Following Francis's death on April 21, 2025, Smith shared a poem on social media comparing him to a dandelion, noting that "Nature and poetry and the suffering shall miss their champion."