Pope Francis has received a transsexual man at the Vatican, in a landmark gesture of acceptance by a pope.

Diego Neria Lejárraga, a 48-year-old Spanish man who underwent sex reassignment surgery, wrote to Francis last year to tell him that he felt like an outcast from the church.

Mr Neria said that he was rejected by some his fellow parishioners at his church in the western Spanish city of Plasencia, where a priest denounced him as ‘the devil’s daughter.’

Including: Pope Francis, pictured on Sunday, invited transsexual Spaniard Diego Neria Lejárraga, 48, pictured right, and his fiancée to a private audience in the Vatican this weekend

Francis, who has become known for surprising people with unexpected phone calls, rang him on Christmas Eve.

The Spaniard and his female fiancée then had a private audience with the pope at his private residence on Saturday morning.

Francis has built a reputation for acceptance and even appeared on the cover of gay magazine The Advocate after responding to a question about gays saying ‘Who am I to judge’.

Mr Neria told Spanish newspaper Hoy: ‘After hearing him speak on many occasions, I felt that he would listen to me.’

Invited: Mr Neria, who was born a woman, had written to Pope Francis saying that he was rejected by parishioners at his church in Spain where a priest denounced him as ‘the devil’s daughter.’

Francis’ tone on homosexuality is much more moderate than his predecessor Benedict XVI who described gay sex as ‘intrinsically disordered’.

But gay rights activists were disheartened by recent comments in which he suggested that gay marriage threatens the institution of the family.