 Catherine is deservedly famous for her surprising role in helping to restore the papacy to Rome after several popes had been residing in Avignon and therefore heavily influenced by the French monarchy. This, however, is not her principal gift to the church. Catherine had the remarkable combination of passion for the truth, integrity of life, and gentleness and humility of spirit that gave her life-changing influence over the people of her own day and of many subsequent generations. She is among the few guides of humanity who have the perfect manner, the irresistible attractiveness of the positive purity of heart which not only sees God but diffuses him as by some natural law of refraction over the hearts of men.