Pope Leo XIV Meets with American Singer Patti Smith who was Wearing a Cross! VIDEO

On Friday morning, July 31, Pope Leo XIV received Patti Smith, the singer-songwriter, poet, and artist.

Pope Leo XIV met Smith, during a private audience at the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace. Smith is, like the Pope, originally from Chicago in the USA. The singer, now age 79, who was wearing a Franciscan Tau cross during the meeting, grew up as a Jehovah Witness. She has three adult children. Smith has studied the bible and the works of St. Francis, whose themes appear in her poetry and songs.

Patti Smith meeting Pope Leo XIV (@Vatican Media)

On May 8, marking the first anniversary of Pope Leo XIV's election to the papacy, Smith inaugurated the Holy See's Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. She performed a sound prayer created in collaboration with the Soundwalk Collective, a key artistic partner in the exhibition project promoted by the Dicastery for Culture and Education.

Honoring Pope Francis

In an interview with Vatican News last April, just days after Pope Francis’ death, Smith shared her personal memories of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, whom she had first met at the General Audience on April 10, 2013, and for whom she performed a year later.

"We have to take the words he cherished — love, humility, compassion — and believe them with our hearts. And, as some of our great Masters taught, we must try to imitate Christ. To imitate Francis is to be that much closer to God,” she said.

"I think that we are living in very troubled times. There is much greed, much grasping for power, and it’s really up to the people — every day, in every way they can — to be kind to each other. All the things he taught us: to be good, to share, to be compassionate. We have to fight the outside forces of greed and power with kindness, with love, and make it radiate — cut through what they are doing. It’s going to be a very hard road, but if we can be peaceful with our neighbor, and then our neighbor with his neighbor, that is a start. We have to start from the most humble gesture. And that is one thing he taught us — that small gestures are greatly meaningful."

Sources: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/world/news/2025-04/patti-smith-in-losing-pope-francis-we-do-not-lose-him.html

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2026-07/pope-leo-xiv-patti-smith-meeting-singer-poet-vatican.html