One of the world's last remaining members of a celibate religeous sect whose members have to adopt orphans in order to for the group to survive, has died.

Sister Marie Frances Burgess was one of the world's last Shakers. She died, aged 81, on Monday at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker village in Maine in the US. Only six members of the community remain.

Shakers, so called for their enthusiastic motions during prayer services, originated in England in the 1770s,

Although they do not shun the modern world and even have their own website, they take a vow of poverty. Their simple, efficient furniture designs have became famously copied throughout the West.

But their vow of celibacy has meant the sect could only grow through converts and the adoption of orphans. Also called the United Society of Believers, the group once had several thousand followers but Sabbathday Lake is the last of about 20 Shaker communities established in the States.