Maria 4 was the daughter of the emperor Theophilos (Theophilos 5) and Theodora 2; the emperor Michael III (Michael 11) was her brother and she had four sisters, Anastasia 2, Anna 2, Poulcheria 1 and Thekla 1: Theoph. Cont. III 5 (p. 90), 18 (p. 107), Leo Gramm. 216, Georg. Mon. Cont. 794, Ps.-Symeon 628, 630, Zon. XV 26. 4, 27. 15-16. She was the youngest of Theophilos 5's five daughters (τὴν πασῶν ἐσχάτην) and his favourite: Theoph. Cont. III 18 (p. 107), Zon. XV 27. 16. She and her sisters used to visit their grandmother (either Euphrosyne 1 (who was their stepgrandmother) or Theoktiste 1) in the monastery of Ta Gastria but they were stopped after Theophilos 5 discovered that they were being encouraged to venerate icons: Ps.-Symeon 628 (Euphrosyne 1), Theoph. Cont. III 5 (Theoktiste 1), Zon. XV 26. 4-8. She was married by her father to Alexios Mousele (Alexios 2); shortly afterwards she died (not long after the birth of her brother Michael 11; Theoph. Cont.); Theophilos 5, it is said, loved her greatly and missed her deeply and interred her in a coffin made of silver; he ordered that anyone charged with a crime who sought sanctuary at her tomb should have immunity: Theoph. Cont. III 18 (pp. 107-108), Leo Gramm. 216, Georg. Mon. Cont. 794, Ps.-Symeon 630, Zon. XV 27. 16-19. Since her mother was Theodora 2, she could only have been a child at the time and was perhaps betrothed to Alexios 2 rather than married; however in Theophanes Continuatus she is styled his wife (γαμετὴ) and there is a reference to her widowhood - (χηρεία). She was certainly still a child when she died as she was buried in a small coffin (larnakion); she was buried, like her father and her brother Konstantinos 232, in the Mausoleum of Justinian at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople: Const. Porph., De Cer. II 42 (Reiske, 645). She was therefore either married as a child or more probably betrothed; the date was probably c. 836/837; see Treadgold, Problem, pp. 329-331.

According to Scylitzes, Maria 4 was one of the children of Theodora 2 (τὰς τῆς Θεοδώρας ... παῖδας): Scyl., p. 52, line 75. She had four sisters, Anna 2, Anastasia 2, Poulcheria 1 and Thekla 1: Scyl., p. 52, line 75. She was influenced by her mother's mother, Theoktiste 1, towards the veneration of icons: Scyl., p. 52, lines 76-81. Maria 4 visited Theoktiste 1's house which was later to become the Gastrion monastery: Scyl., p. 52, lines 74-75. Maria 4 allegedly had feelings of disgust for her father's heresy and felt drawn to the form of the Holy Icons (αἵρεσιν ... εἰκόνων μορφάς): Scyl., p. 52, lines 80-81. Maria 4 was not the one who betrayed the secret of her grandmother's icons to her father Theophilos 5 (see Poulcheria 1): Scyl., p. 52, lines 84-86. She was presumably already dead (or possibly not yet born) when this occurred, since at the time Poulcheria 1 was the youngest of the daughters of Theophilos 5.

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