Pope Sixtus V

Pope Sixtus V was a builder and a reformer who came to the papal throne already carrying the weight of a whole institution on his shoulders, and his chart tells you exactly why. His Sun sits in Saturn-ruled Capricorn, the old-soul climber whose entire identity organises around mission, reputation and the slow, dependable ascent to the highest rung of the ladder. Born Felice Piergentile, he rose through the Franciscan order as scholar and preacher, won the patronage of Pius V, and was made a cardinal known as Montalto before ascending to the Chair of St Peter in 1585. That Capricorn Sun falls in the twelfth house, the murky house of faith, spirit and self-sacrifice, fitting for a life given wholly to the Church.

His Moon in Gemini gave him a restless, fact-gathering, endlessly busy mind, and in the sixth house of duty and daily service it turned toward relentless work. He rooted out corruption across Rome, taxed heavily and rebuilt the city with a far-sighted, controversial vigour, and excommunicated both Elizabeth I and Henry IV. A Capricorn Ascendant completed the picture: the stoic mask, the boss, the last man to carry the name Sixtus.