The Kentucky county clerk jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples was in seventh heaven after a secret meeting with Pope Francis last week.

“I was crying. I had tears coming out of my eyes,” Kim Davis told ABC News. “I’m just a nobody, so it was really humbling to think he would want to meet or know me.”

Davis, an Apostolic Christian, said she and her husband, Joe, were quietly ushered into the papal mission in Washington, DC, on Thursday just before the pontiff left for New York.

“I put my hand out and he reached and he grabbed it, and I hugged him and he hugged me,” Davis said. “And he said, ‘Thank you for your courage.’ ”

The Vatican vaguely acknowledged the papal powwow Wednesday.

“I do not deny that the meeting took place, but I have no comment to add,” Holy See spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a statement.

Francis was asked during his flight back to Rome from Philadelphia on Sunday if he had an opinion on Davis — who was jailed for five days rather than comply with a federal judge’s order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

He said he didn’t know enough about Davis’ actions to comment, but respected her right to conscientious objection.

“It is a right. And if a person does not allow others to be a conscientious objector, he denies a right,” the pope said.

Davis told ABC News that Francis left her and her hubby with a rosary.

“Just knowing that the pope is on track with what we’re doing, it kind of validates everything to have someone of that stature,” she said.

Gay activists assailed the meeting.

“It’s nothing short of appalling that the Vatican would turn its back on countless LGBT members and families by lending its support to someone who has brought so much pain to LGBT families,” Sarah Kate Ellis, head of GLAAD, a gay and transgender media monitoring group, said.

Meanwhile, the emboldened Davis plans to continue her fight until hell freezes over.

“I’ve weighed the cost and I’m prepared to do whatever it takes, even jail,” she said. “It’s still the same battle, we just have some more fighting with us now.”

With Post Wire Services