SOUTH KINGSTOWN — The fox that bit the vicar of a Kingston church twice Wednesday tested positive for rabies, according to the state Department of Health.

Jennifer Phillips will undergo a battery of five shots over the next four weeks, said Annemarie Beardsworth, department spokeswoman.

Phillips, 56, was in her garden at 106 Bayberry Rd. around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday when the fox came at her and bit her in the calf, Capt. Jeffrey Allen said.

It then bit her on her ring finger after she fell to the ground while trying to hit it away, said Gail Mastrati, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Management. The fox ran into the woods, but returned.

A DEM officer shot the fox, which was described as slight and skinny, at a neighbor’s property about 50 yards away, Mastrati said. Its body was taken to the state Department of Health, where it was tested for rabies.

Phillips, a pastor at St. Augustine Episcopal Church, on the University of Rhode Island campus, was treated at South County Hospital.

Three people were bitten by two foxes in Hopkinton in May. One of those animals tested positive for rabies.