Nikolaos 27's name is given only in the Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae. As a young man Nikolaos 27 took part in the campaign of the emperor Nikephoros I (Nikephoros 8) against the Bulgars in 811; he served among the scholarioi (Vita Nic. Stud. 893B: νέος ὑπάρχων, ἐν τῇ τῶν σχολαρίων στρατείᾳ κατεληλεγμένος ἐτύγχανον); he fell behind the army and sought shelter in the house of a woman (Anonyma 39) who later sent her servants to kill him after he rejected her attempts at seduction during the night; before he could rejoin the army he witnessed the battle in which the Bulgars defeated and killed the emperor; he immediately went to Atroa and became a monk, and in his old age told the story of his experiences to Kyprianos 5, a monk from the Stoudite monastery; Kyprianos told it to Anatolios 1 who in turn passed it on to the author of the Life of Nicolaus the Stoudite (Nikolaos 26): Vita Nic. Stud. 893B-897C, cf. Synax. Eccl. Const. 341-344 (Νικολάου μοναχοῦ καὶ ἀπὸ στρατιώτων; the entry, which recounts his Thracian adventure, is placed under 24 December). See further Rochow, Theophanes, pp. 298, 299.

(Publishable link for this person: )