Because they had lived that life of prayer for so long together and in that place, not only had they become deeply united as a community, but they had created deep bonds with the whole local Church, on the one hand, and also with a group of devout Muslims, especially a Sufi community, that regularly came to the monastery to reflect and pray with them, on the other hand. They had also developed deep bonds of friendship with the local population, to the point of letting the local Muslims use a building of the monastery as the village mosche. Of course it has. And the story has not stopped with their death. Because of what these very humble and simple monks lived, and because of the way they died, millions of people, including millions of Algerian Muslims, have also seen something of God's face in them.
Contemplative life has no frontiers.