Joseph John Rice

Joseph John Rice (December 6, 1871&mdash;April 1, 1938) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Burlington in Vermont from 1910 until his death in 1938.

Early life
Joseph Rice was born on December 6, 1871, in Leicester, Massachusetts, to Henry and Catherine (née Donnelly) Rice. After graduating from Leicester Academy in Leicester in 1888, he studied at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts (1888–1891), and at the Grand Seminary of Montreal in Montreal, Quebec (1891–1894).

Priesthood
Returning to Massachusetts, Rice was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts by Bishop Thomas Beaven on September 29, 1894. He then travelled to Rome to study, earning a Doctor of Divinity degree from the College of the Propaganda in 1896.

Following his return to the United States, Rice was assigned to a parish in Portland, Maine. He was then sent to Northern Maine to do missionary work among Native Americans there. Rice's next pastoral assignment was as an assistant pastor at St. Bernard's parish in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. He was then appointed as pastor of a French-Canadian parish in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Rice also served in parishes in Oxford, Massachusetts, and Whitinsville, Massachusetts. Rice was a professor of philosophy at St. John's Seminary in Boston until 1903, when he was tasked with erecting St. Peter's Parish in Northbridge, Massachusetts.

Bishop of Burlington
On January 8, 1910, Rice was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Burlington by Pope Pius X. He received his episcopal consecration on April 14, 1910, from Bishop Thomas Beaven, with Bishops Matthew Harkins and Louis Walsh serving as co-consecrators, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Burlington.

In June 1923 the cornerstone was laid for a hospital on land in Burlington previously purchased for that purpose by Bishop DeGoesbriand. The hospital was named for him. Rice placed De Goesbriand Memorial Hospital under the care of the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph. In 1927, a School of Nursing was opened.

During his 28-year-long tenure, Rice opened three high schools and Trinity College. He was also confronted with a case of anti-Catholicism; in November 1925, the Ku Klux Klan burned a cross on the steps of St. Augustine's Church at Montpelier, Vermont.

Joseph Rice died on April 1, 1938, at age 66. He is buried at Resurrection Park in South Burlington, Vermont.