White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany became emotional as she talked about the death of the legendary Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias, who passed away on Tuesday morning after a battle with a rare form of cancer.

While talking to the Christian Broadcast Network, McEnany explained how Zacharias’ reasoned defense of Christianity helped her get through her time at Oxford University, a school known for having an abundance of distinguished atheist scholars.

“It’s a huge loss. You know, my dad said to me that Billy Graham was the great evangelist, and I think Ravi Zacharias is the great apologist,” McEnany said as she began to tear up. “To have someone from an academic place, as an apologist, could equip you with those arguments where you didn’t have to check your brain at the door when you became a Christian where there is the intellectual foundation for everything we believe. There’s prophecy. There’s the human cell. There’s the amazing creation of the human body and all of its complexity and the planet, the universe.”

“And he put a philosophical and academic rationale for the heart that I had for Christ, that gave me the ability to go to Oxford, where there are renowned atheist scholars who try to say there’s no intellectual undergirding for Christianity,” McEnany added. “Ravi Zacharias, who happened to have an office at Oxford, was the person who provided the counter to that, the intelligence behind why we believe what we believe.”

McEnany was at Oxford for a year studying politics and international relations during her time as an undergraduate student at Georgetown University. Ravi Zacharias International Ministries has run a study center at Oxford for the past fifteen years.

Zacharias, who was 74 when he passed away, spent much of his life defending Christianity by answering questions of origins, morality, and destiny. The stated goal of his organization is “helping the thinker believe and the believer think,” and while Zacharias will be dearly missed, he will never be forgotten.

“He is someone I’ll meet in Heaven, and rest assured his legacy will always be here and he will continue to change lives,” McEnany concluded.