Patti Smith Singing for the Pope and Talks About Her Christian Background

By Timothy Yap Nov 17, 2014 03:35 AM EST

Rock singer Patti Smith has bee personally invited by the Pope at the Concerto di Natale, the Vatican's annual Christmas concert held in Rome since 1993, next month. The concert will take place at Auditorium Conciliazione, a venue located about a 15-minute walk from the heart of Vatican City, on December 13th.

Smith explained her relationship with Christianity in the context of her song "Mercy Is," which appeared in Darren Aronofsky's film Noah earlier this year. "I have a very strong biblical background," she said. "I studied the bible quite a bit when I was young and continue to study it, independent of any religion, but I still study it.

However, it was Smith who sang, "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine" on her cover of Them's "Gloria." "I wrote the first lines of 'Gloria' when I was 20," the singer, who was raised Jehovah's Witness but "left organized religion at 12 or 13," told Rolling Stone earlier this year. "I recorded it some years later for Horses, but really, it was a declaration of self, not so much about Jesus. He is the vehicle, but I was declaring my existence, my right to make my own mistakes, my right to make my own choices. I was defining the type of artist that was entering the domain of rock & roll and the type of artist that I was, one who was going to make her own decisions."