Bob Dylan wore a black hoodie in a rare public appearance meeting the Pope, with the internet comparing the musician to the Grim Reaper or a Star Wars character.

Dylan was photographed with the pontiff — a Dylan fan — at the Vatican in an encounter that has lit up the internet.

The Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door singer wore ​a black coat, black gloves, a black jumper with the hood pulled over his head and a polka-dot tie.

The 71-year-old leader of the Catholic Church wore his customary white ‌cassock.

Leo and Dylan, fellow travellers from ‌the US Midwest, met in the pope’s office at the ornate apostolic palace in photos shared by the Vatican’s newspaper on social media.

“It was hard ‌not ​to feel the emotion of being part of an encounter that ​had a real ‌sense of history about it, with the feeling that, at every ​step through the Apostolic Palace, absolutely anything could happen!” said Reverend Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican official who builds relationships between the Church and entertainment figures.

The Vatican press office did not immediately comment on whether ​Leo ​and Dylan had discussed ​anything blowing in the wind.

The Vatican’s newspaper ‌said Leo had “received in private audience Mr. Robert Allen Zimmerman,” using the name the musician was given at birth in Duluth, Minnesota.

Leo, originally from Chicago, is known as a Dylan fan. He quoted a ​1963 anti-nuclear protest song from the singer, Go Away You Bomb, in ​a preface of ⁠a book released in July.

Photos of the pair immediately sparked memes online.

“At first thought this photo might be AI, but there is no technology advanced enough to create this outfit,” posted the @JokermenPodcast on X.

GQ reporter Ian grant headlined his article ‘Bob Dylan Dressed Like Timothée Chalamet to Meet the Pope.’

Mike Beauvais said the pope and Dylan looked like they were starring in “an early 90s drama in which two priests try to solve mysteries in their seemingly sleepy Midwestern town that hides a seedy underbelly”.

In one online roasting, the pair were given lightsabers in a digital reimagining of Dylan as a Stars Wars dark Sith Lord and the Pope as a white Jedi.

-with AAP