Rock legend Patti Smith was giddy and nearly puzzled when she met Friday (July 31) with Pope Leo XIV.
“Hello,” she stated softly as she sat down throughout from Leo at his desk within the Apostolic Palace.
Submit-meeting, on Instagram, she had a bit extra to say: “This can be a second that shall perpetually produce a smile,” she wrote of the encounter.
Carrying a crucifix necklace and hair in her trademark braids, Smith has grow to be an more and more seen presence on the Vatican because of her friendship with the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, undersecretary within the Vatican’s tradition ministry.
She has stated that whereas she shouldn’t be Catholic, she was drawn specifically to Pope Francis and his “light, open, and steadfast sense of humanity.”
She additionally had a factor for Pope John Paul I: Her 1979 tune “Wave” is a couple of make-believe dialog with the pope who had simply died after a 33-day papacy. It begins “Hello. Hello,” uttered in the identical breathy voice Smith used with Leo on Friday.
The pope clearly was aware of the tune. “That was marvelous,” he stated.
Earlier this yr, Smith carried out through the inauguration of the Holy See’s Pavilion on the Venice Biennale up to date artwork truthful. The event, Could 8, was the anniversary of Leo’s election.
Spadaro, who joined Smith at Friday’s viewers, stated the encounter between the 2 Chicago natives was round 40 minutes lengthy. In a textual content message, he stated it “felt extra like a dialog between two folks discovering they have been previous associates, sharing recollections woven from phrases and music, desires, visions, and hopes — each from yesterday and for right this moment.”
He stated on the finish, Smith stated “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, evaluating Francis to a dandelion, “humble but robust.”
“Nature and poetry and the struggling shall miss their champion,” she wrote.
It was Leo’s second encounter with a music legend this week. On Wednesday, Leo attended a live performance in his honor by tenor Andrea Bocelli.
