To the 12 Syrian refugees who spent their first day in Rome on Sunday, Pope Francis is not just the leader of the Roman Catholic Church but also the "father of peace in the world, and peace has no religion."
To them, the Pope is also an "angel" who came to save them from the horrors of war in their native land.
The 12 were among the hundreds of thousands of refugees stranded on the Greek island of Lesbos, which was visited on Saturday by the leaders of three major Christian churches—Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church; Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians; and Ieronymos II, the archbishop of Athens and Greece. Those churches have been estranged for more than a millennium. But their leaders' shared compassion for the poor refugees brought them together on Lesbos.
In a gesture rich with symbolism, Pope Francis took the 12 Muslim refugees with him on his flight back to Rome.
NBC News interviewed the refugees comprising of three families. They all marvelled at what the Pope has done.
"I still don't believe we are here now," said Osama, one of the refugees. "He is the father of peace in the world, and peace has no religion."
Another refugee was Suhila, a seamstress who came together with her husband Ramy, who is a teacher, and their three children.
"He [the Pope] saved our lives," said Suhila, speaking through an interpreter. "To me, he is now like an angel, a new father who saves the lives of his children."
"I spoke to him, but I don't even remember what I told him," Suhila said. "I was overwhelmed with emotions. No Muslim leader has done what he has done."
Suhila and her family fled Deir al-Zour, a Syrian city near the Iraqi border that came under Islamic State (ISIS) attack. They arrived in Greece in February via Turkey.
The Pope also brought to Rome Hasan and Nour Essa together with their 2-year-old son, Riyad.
"What's happening with us, it's like a dream," Nour Essa, a microbiologist, told NBC News on Sunday. "It's like a beautiful dream."
Essa said Pope Francis was "more important than any Muslim religious man, because what the pope did with us has never been done by an Arabic leader or by a Muslim religious man."
Francis, she said, "is a real human being. ...He's not like the others."
Essa said she wants the Italian people to know that "we are normal people like you."
"We are not terrorists. We are not jihadists. We just ran out of our country because of the war, and we love you."
In a lighter vein, she said she and her family are looking forward to eating all the "lasagna, pasta and pizza" that they could.
"I like the lasagna," she said.
