Join us every third Thursday of every month at 9:00 AM for Coffee With the Curator at the Museum of World Treasures!

Event Details

• Date: Thursday, January 15, 2026
• Time: 9:00 AM
• Location: Museum of World Treasures [Get Directions]

Program Fee

• Museum Members: Free
• Non-Members: $4 per person plus tax

Become a Museum Member

Attending Information

• Open to all ages
• No need to register; simply walk in!
• Light refreshments provided.

This month's Talk

The Templars: Origins, Life, Legacy, and Myth

This talk will discuss the Military Order of the Temple, from its humble beginnings in 1119 as a nine-man group of knights, led by Hugh of Payns, devoted to protecting pilgrims in the Holy Land to its suppression ending in 1314 with the execution of its last grand master James of Molay. It will discuss Templar participation in the Holy Land, its influence across Medieval Europe, and its tension with the Church, monarchs, and competing military orders. Lastly, this talk will discuss the legacy of the Templars after their suppression, including the myths about the order that still linger in the modern imagination.

This month's speaker

Matthew Weller

Matthew Weller is a doctoral student at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham London in Medieval Church History. His research explores how the memory of a suppressed international crusading order, the Templars, was potentially translated and reimagined, contributing to the creation of the Order of the Garter, an English national chivalric order imbued with crusading values. He completed his Master of Arts at Newman University in Wichita, KS where his thesis explored the scriptural and liturgical language found in the Gesta Francorum, one of the earliest and most complete accounts of the First Crusade. Matthew resides in Wichita, with his wife and four boys.