He wrote beautiful hymns in praise of the sun, the moon, and the stars, and had a great love for every living thing.

The birds were said to have flocked around him because they loved him, and we read that he talked to them and called them his 'little sisters.' An old writer tells this story in good faith: When St.Francis spake words to them, the birds began all of them to open their beaks and spread their wings and reverently bend their heads down to the ground, and by their acts and by their songs did show that the holy Father gave them joy exceeding great.
Wherever he preached he made converts who 'married Holy Poverty,' as St.Francis expressed it, gave up everything they had, and lived his preaching and roaming life.

St.Francis himself had no idea of forming a monastic order.

He wished to live a holy life in the world and show others how to do the same, and for years he and his companions worked among the poor, earning their daily bread when they could, and when they could not, begging for it.

Gradually, however, ambition stirred in the hearts of some of the followers of Francis, and against the will of their leader they made themselves into the Order of Franciscan Friars, collected gifts of money, and began to build churches and monastic buildings.