PHILADELPHIA: A Sudanese woman who refused to recant her Christian faith in the face of a death sentence, which was later overturned, left Europe on Thursday for the United States, where she will make her new home.

Meriam Ibrahim, her husband and their children are due to arrive in Philadelphia on a flight from Rome, where last week they met privately with Pope Francis.

The Rev. William Devlin, a New York City pastor who has helped the family, said they would be flying onto Manchester, New Hampshire.

Meriam’s husband, Daniel Wani, had previously lived in New Hampshire, where hundreds of southern Sudanese refugees have settled over the years. He had been granted US citizenship when he fled to the United States as a child to escape civil war, but he later returned and was a citizen of South Sudan.

Sudan initially blocked Ibrahim from leaving the country even after its highest court overturned her death sentence in June. At one point, the family took refuge at the US embassy in Khartoum.

Devlin said Ibrahim expressed some sadness when he talked to her Wednesday. “She is leaving everything she knows behind,” he said.

The White House last week said it was delighted at Ibrahim’s release and looked forward to welcoming her to the United States. A global outcry erupted in May after she was sentenced to hang for apostasy. Days after her conviction, she gave birth to her daughter in prison.

Her conviction was overturned in June, but she was immediately rearrested while trying to leave Sudan using what prosecutors claimed were forged documents.

Two days later, Ibrahim was released from prison and she and her family took refuge in the US Embassy because of mounting death threats. Her father was Muslim, and her mother was an Orthodox Christian. She married Wani, a Christian from southern Sudan, in 2011.