He made reptiles vanish, recreating past magic (2,7)

I believe the answer is:

st patrick

'he made reptiles vanish' is the definition.
(St Patrick supposedly banished snakes from Ireland)

'recreating past magic' is the wordplay.
'recreating' is an anagram indicator (I've seen 'recreated' mean this).
'magic' becomes 'trick' (synonyms).
'past' anagrammed gives 'stpa'.
'stpa'+'trick'='ST PATRICK'

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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