Sister Sylvia Asselin, a native of Arlington, Mass., entered the order of the Marianites of Holy Cross in 1955 in Our Lady of Princeton, Princeton. This year she is celebrating the 60th anniversary of her religious profession.

She graduated from St. Francis Medical Center School of Nursing, Trenton, and received her bachelor of science in nursing from Boston College, Boston. She continued her education in New York University, New York City, earning a master’s degree in nursing.

Community health nursing comprised a significant portion of her career, including terms serving in the Visiting Nurse Association in Princeton as well as in Monmouth and Ocean Counties, and in the broader Central Jersey region. Sister Sylvia also spent time in Haysville, N.C., ministering to those living in the mountainous region.

For two years, Sister Sylvia taught elementary education in St. Benedict School, Hazlet, later being named pastoral assistant in St. Dominic Parish, Brick, a post she held for 12 years. Under the leadership of Msgr. James Brady, pastor of St. Dominic Parish, she established a parish nurse program, a bereavement ministry and a women’s group for social activity and assistance to the needy. She also coordinated the parish’s extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion schedule for local hospitals, nursing homes and the homebound.

Within her congregation, Sister Sylvia was elected to leadership positions in France, Louisiana, New Jersey and Canada. She spent a time as mission coordinator as well, traveling to Asia, Africa, Haiti and Latin America. Presently, she is involved in volunteer ministry to the homebound in St. Dominic Parish, and in St. John Parish, Lakehurst.