Born in Toronto of Ukrainian heritage, Marianna Savaryn received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Education degree from Queen's University. Marianna has always painted and in her late twenties she decided to study Byzantine iconography. Her ten-year apprenticeship with Studite monk Fr. Juvenile Mokritsky was probably her most influential training, allowing her to experience the tradition passed down from one hand to another. During those years she completed the iconostasis at St. Vladimir Ukrainian Catholic Church in Red Deer, Alberta, under his guidance. Her public projects include the Blessed Martyr Vasyl Velychkovsky at the Shrine at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Saint André Bessette in J. H. Picard Catholic School in Edmonton, Alberta. Marianna has also written icons for private devotion. Her icon of the Angel with Golden Hair is in the permanent collection of the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec.

From 2007 to 2010, Marianna collaborated and worked with a group of iconographers on commissions for churches in Bologna, Italy, leading to her inclusion in the book Visible Invisible - Contemporary icons written in Italy (2012). In 2012, she completed seven icons for Ss. Peter & Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, which were blessed by His Beatitude Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk during his visit.