 When he contracted the disease himself and lay near death, Catherine came and sat at his bedside until he recovered.Knowing how close he was to death, Raymond credited his recovery to her prayers.By 1374 Raymond had come to the attention of Pope Gregory XI, then living in Avignon, as a result of his connection to Catherine, and also for his novel ways of confronting issues like the Crusades in the Holy Land, the return of the papacy to Rome, and the general reform of the Church.