A giddy Patti Smith meets fellow Chicago legend, Pope Leo XIV, and says "Hi"
Rock icon Patti Smith met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican for a conversation about music, poetry, and shared humanity. The meeting highlighted the pair's mutual appreciation for artistic expression and their shared Chicago roots.
Why it matters
Demonstrates the intersection of high-profile cultural figures and religious leadership in modern diplomacy.
ROME -- Rock legend Patti Smith was giddy and almost at a loss for words when she met Friday with Pope Leo XIV.
“Hi,” she said softly as she sat down across from Leo at his desk in the Apostolic Palace.
Wearing a crucifix necklace and hair in her trademark braids, Smith has become an increasingly visible presence at the Vatican thanks to her friendship with the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, undersecretary in the Vatican’s culture ministry.
She has said that while she is not Catholic, she was drawn in particular to Pope Francis and his “gentle, open, and steadfast sense of humanity.”
She also had a thing for Pope John Paul I: Her 1979 tune “Wave,” is about a make-believe conversation with the pope who had just died after a 33-day papacy. It begins “Hi. Hi” uttered in the same breathy voice Smith used with Leo on Friday.
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