Born into the Daniilovichi branch of the House of Rurik, she was the daughter of Prince Vladimir of Staritsa by his second wife, Princess Eudoxia Romanovna Odoyevskaya (d. 1569), and, through her father, descended from Sophia Palaiologina.

On 12 April 1574, in Novgorod, she married Magnus of Livonia, member of the House of Oldenburg, second son of Christian III of Denmark and his wife, Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg.

They had: Upon her husband's death, Jerome Horsey escorted Maria from the Bishopric of Courland to the court of Boris Godunov.

Although Horsey proposed to marry her, Godunov was anxious to get rid of a potential claimant to the throne.

As a result, Maria was forced to take the veil and entered a convent adjacent to the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra.