Pope Francis has met privately with a Sudanese woman who arrived in Italy after escaping a death sentence in Sudan for refusing to recant her Christian faith.

The Vatican said Pope Francis had "a very affectionate" meeting with Meriam

Daniel Wani with his wife, Meriam Yeyha Ibrahim, who was sentenced to death in Sudan for refusing to renounce her Christian faith.

GABRIEL WANI , 27, her husband and their two small children. Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the pope "thanked her for her faith and courage, and she thanked him for his prayer and solidarity" during the half-hour meeting Thursday.

Francis frequently calls attention to the plight of those persecuted for their religious beliefs.

Ibrahim arrived earlier in Rome, greeted by Italy's premier, en route to the United States, where her husband has citizenship. Italy along with the United States worked for her release.

Ibrahim was sentenced to death for "apostasy" in May by a Khartoum court for allegedly converting to Christianity from Islam. She maintains that her Muslim father left when she was young and that she was raised a Christian by her Ethiopian mother, who is an Orthodox Christian.

Ibrahim married a Christian man from southern Sudan in a church ceremony in 2011. As in many Muslim nations, Muslim women in Sudan are prohibited from marrying non-Muslims, though Muslim men can marry outside their faith.

Ibrahim was living with her son Martin in jail, where she gave birth to a second child.

"They didn't even take Meriam to a hospital - she just delivered inside a prison clinic," her lawyer told The Telegraph in May. "Neither her husband nor I have been allowed to see them yet."